In Zechariah 5, the prophet sees a flying scroll which symbolizes God's swift judgment against transgressors of the law, particularly thieves and perjurers. The scroll, which is large and inscribed on both sides, represents the curses that will affect those who violate His commandments. This vision serves as a reminder that despite God's favor, sin will not go unpunished among His people.

1. ZECHARIAH 5 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
The Flying Scroll
1 I looked again, and there before me was a flying
scroll.
BAR ES, "Hitherto all had been bright, full of the largeness of the gifts of God; of
God’s favor to His people ; the removal of their enemies ; the restoration and expansion
and security of God’s people and Church under His protection ; the acceptance of the
present typical priesthood and the promise of Him, through whom there should be
entire forgiveness : the abiding illumining of the Church by the Spirit of God . Yet there
is a reverse side to all this, God’s judgments on those who reject all His mercies.
Augustine, de Civ. Del. 17:3. Ribera: “Prophecies partly appertain to those in whose
times the sacred writers prophesied, partly to the mysteries of Christ. And therefore it is
the custom of the prophets, at one time to chastise vices and set forth punishments, at
another to predict the mysteries of Christ and the Church.”
And I turned and - Or, “Again I lifted up my eyes” Gen_26:18; 2Ki_1:11, 2Ki_1:13;
Jer_18:14, having again sunk down in meditation on what he had seen, “and behold a
roll flying;” as, to Ezekiel was shown “a hand with a roll of a book therein, and he spread
it before me.” Ezekiel’s roll also was “written within and without, and there was written,
therein lamentation and mourning and woe” Eze_2:9-10. It was a wide unfolded roll, as
is involved in its flying; but its “flight signified the very swift coming of punishment; its
flying from heaven that the sentence came from the judgment-seat above” (Ribera).
CLARKE, "Behold a flying roll - This was twenty cubits long, and ten cubits
broad; the prophet saw it expanded, and flying. Itself was the catalogue of the crimes of
the people, and the punishment threatened by the Lord. Some think the crimes were
those of the Jews; others, those of the Chaldeans. The roll is mentioned in allusion to
those large rolls on which the Jews write the Pentateuch. One now lying before me is one
hundred and fifty-three feet long, by twenty-one inches wide, written on fine brown
Basle goat-skin; some time since brought from Jerusalem, supposed to be four hundred
years old.
GILL, "Then I turned, and lift up mine eyes, and looked,.... The prophet turned
himself from looking upon the candlestick and olive branches, having had a full and
clear understanding of them, and looked another way, and saw another vision:

2. and behold a flying roll, a volume or book flying in the air; it being usual for books,
which were written on parchment, to be rolled up in the form of a cylinder; whence they
were called rolls or volumes.
HE RY, "We do not find that the prophet now needed to be awakened, as he did
Zec_4:1. Being awakened then, he kept wakeful after; nay, now he needs not be so much
as called to look about him, for of his own accord he turns and lifts up his eyes. This
good men sometimes get by their infirmities, they make them the more careful and
circumspect afterwards. Now observe,
I. What it was that the prophet saw; he looked up into the air, and behold a flying roll.
A vast large scroll of parchment which had been rolled up, and is therefore called a roll,
was now unrolled and expanded; this roll was flying upon the wings of the wind, carried
swiftly through the air in open view, as an eagle that shoots down upon her prey; it was a
roll, like Ezekiel's that was written within and without with lamentations, and
mourning, and woe, Eze_2:9, Eze_2:10. As the command of the law is in writing, for
certainty and perpetuity, so is the curse of the law; it writes bitter things against the
sinner. “What I have written I have written and what is written remains.” The angel, to
engage the prophet's attention, and to raise in him a desire to have it explained, asks him
what he sees? And he gives him this account of it: I see a flying roll, and as near as he
can guess by his eye it is twenty cubits long (that is, ten yards) and ten cubits broad, that
is, five yards. The scriptures of the Old Testament and the New are rolls, in which God
has written to us the great things of his law and gospel. Christ is the Master of the rolls.
They are large rolls, have much in them. They are flying rolls; the angel that had the
everlasting gospel to preach flew in the midst of heaven, Rev_14:6. God's word runs
very swiftly, Psa_147:15. Those that would be let into the meaning of these rolls must
first tell what they see, must go as far as they can themselves. “What is written in the
law? how readest thou? Tell me that, and then thou shalt be made to understand what
thou readest.”
JAMISO , "Zec_5:1-4. Sixth Vision. The flying roll. The fraudulent and perjuring
transgressors of the Law shall be extirpated from Judea.
flying roll — of papyrus, or dressed skins, used for writing on when paper was not
known. It was inscribed with the words of the curse (Deu_27:15-26; Deu_28:15-68).
Being written implied that its contents were beyond all escape or repeal (Eze_2:9). Its
“flying” shows that its curses were ready swiftly to visit the transgressors. It was
unrolled, or else its dimensions could not have been seen (Zec_5:2). Being open to all,
none could say in excuse he knew not the law and the curses of disobedience. As the
previous visions intimated God’s favor in restoring the Jewish state, so this vision
announces judgment, intimating that God, notwithstanding His favor, did not approve
of their sins. Being written on both sides, “on this and on that side” (Zec_5:3) [Vatablus]
connects it with the two tables of the law (Exo_32:15), and implies its
comprehensiveness. One side denounced “him that sweareth falsely (Zec_5:4) by God’s
name,” according to the third commandment of the first table, duty to God; the other
side denounced theft, according to the eighth commandment, which is in the second
table, duty to one’s neighbor.
K&D 1-4, "Zec_5:1. “And I lifted up my eyes again, and saw, and behold a flying roll.

3. Zec_5:2. And he said to me, What seest thou? And I said, I see a flying roll; its length
twenty cubits, and its breadth ten cubits. Zec_5:3. And he said to me, This is the curse
that goeth forth over the whole land: for every one that stealeth will be cleansed away
from this side, according to it; and every one that sweareth will be cleansed away from
that side, according to it. Zec_5:4. I have caused it to go forth, is the saying of Jehovah
of hosts, and it will come into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that
sweareth by my name for deceit: and it will pass the night in the midst of his house,
and consume both its beams and its stones.” The person calling the prophet's attention
to the vision, and interpreting it, is the angelus interpres. This is not specially
mentioned here, as being obvious from what goes before. The roll (book-scroll, me
gillâh =
me
gillath sēpher, Eze_2:9) is seen flying over the earth unrolled, so that its length and
breadth can be seen. The statement as to its size is not to be regarded as “an
approximative estimate,” so that the roll would be simply described as of considerable
size (Koehler), but is unquestionably significant. It corresponds both to the size of the
porch of Solomon's temple (1Ki_6:3), and also to the dimensions of the holy place in the
tabernacle, which was twenty cubits long and ten cubits broad. Hengstenberg, Hofmann,
and Umbreit, following the example of Kimchi, assume that the reference is to the porch
of the temple, and suppose that the roll has the same dimensions as this porch, to
indicate that the judgment is “a consequence of the theocracy” or was to issue from the
sanctuary of Israel, where the people assembled before the Lord. But the porch of the
temple was neither a symbol of the theocracy, nor the place where the people assembled
before the Lord, but a mere architectural ornament, which had no significance whatever
in relation to the worship. The people assembled before the Lord in the court, to have
reconciliation made for them with God by sacrifice; or they entered the holy place in the
person of their sanctified mediators, the priests, as cleansed from sin, there to appear
before God and engage in His spotless worship. The dimensions of the roll are taken
from the holy place of the tabernacle, just as in the previous vision the candlestick was
the mosaic candlestick of the tabernacle. Through the similarity of the dimensions of the
roll to those of the holy place in the tabernacle, there is no intention to indicate that the
curse proceeds from the holy place of the tabernacle or of the temple; for the roll would
have issued from the sanctuary, if it had been intended to indicate this. Moreover, the
curse or judgment does indeed begin at the house of God, but it does not issue or come
from the house of God. Kliefoth has pointed to the true meaning in the following
explanation which he gives: “The fact that the writing, which brings the curse upon all
the sinners of the earth, has the same dimensions as the tabernacle, signifies that the
measure will be meted out according to the measure of the holy place;” and again, “the
measure by which this curse upon sinners will be meted out, will be the measure of the
holy place.” With this measure would all sinners be measured, that they might be cut off
from the congregation of the Lord, which appeared before God in the holy place.
The flight of the roll symbolized the going forth of the curse over the whole land.
‫ץ‬ ֶ‫ר‬ፎ ָ‫ל־ה‬ ָⅴ is rendered by Hofmann, Neumann, and Kliefoth “the whole earth,” because “it
evidently signifies the whole earth in v. Zec_4:10, Zec_4:14, and Zec_6:5” (Kliefoth). But
these passages, in which the Lord of the whole earth is spoken of, do not prove anything
in relation to our vision, in which ‫ץ‬ ֶ‫ר‬ፎ ָ‫ל־ה‬ ָⅴ is unmistakeably limited to the land of Canaan
(Judah) by the antithesis in Zec_5:11, “the land of Shinar.” If the sinners who are
smitten by the curse proceeding over ‫ץ‬ ֶ‫ר‬ፎ ָ‫ל־ה‬ ָⅴ are to be carried into the land of Sinar, the
former must be a definite land, and not the earth as the sum of all lands. It cannot be
argued in opposition to this, that the sin of the land in which the true house of God and

4. the true priesthood were, was wiped away by expiation, whereas the sin of the whole
world would be brought into the land of judgment, when its measure was concluded by
God; for this antithesis is foreign not only to this vision, but to the Scriptures
universally. The Scriptures know nothing of any distribution or punishment of sins
according to different lands, but simply according to the character of the sinners, viz.,
whether they are penitent or hardened. At the same time, the fact that ‫ץ‬ ֶ‫ר‬ፎ ָ‫ל־ה‬ ָⅴ denotes
the whole of the land of Israel, by no means proves that our vision either treats of the
“carrying away of Israel into exile,” which had already occurred (Ros.), or “sets before
them a fresh carrying away into exile, and one still in the future” (Hengstenberg), or that
on the coming of the millennial kingdom the sin and the sinners will be exterminated
from the whole of the holy land, and the sin thrown back upon the rest of the earth,
which is still under the power of the world (Hofmann). The vision certainly refers to the
remote future of the kingdom of God; and therefore “the whole land” cannot be
restricted to the extent and boundaries of Judaea or Palestine, but reaches as far as the
spiritual Israel or church of Christ is spread over the earth; but there is no allusion in
our vision to the millennial kingdom, and its establishment within the limits of the
earthly Canaan. The curse falls upon all thieves and false swearers. ‫ע‬ ָ ְ‫שׁ‬ִ ַ‫ה‬ in Zec_5:3 is
defined more precisely in Zec_5:4, as swearing in the name of Jehovah for deceit, and
therefore refers to perjury in the broadest sense of the word, or to all abuse of the name
of God for false, deceitful swearing. Thieves are mentioned for the sake of
individualizing, as sinners against the second table of the decalogue; false swearers, as
sinners against the first table. The repetition of ָ‫מוֹה‬ ָⅴ ‫ה‬ֶ ִ‫מ‬ points to this; for mizzeh,
repeated in correlative clauses, signifies hinc et illinc, hence and thence, i.e., on one side
and the other (Exo_17:12; Num_22:24; Eze_47:7), and can only refer here to the fact
that the roll was written upon on both sides, so that it is to be taken in close connection
with ָ‫מוֹה‬ ָⅴ: “on this side ... and on that, according to it” (the roll), i.e., according to the
curse written upon this side and that side of the roll. We have therefore to picture the
roll to ourselves as having the curse against the thieves written upon the one side, and
that against the perjurers upon the other. The supposition that mizzeh refers to ‫ץ‬ ֶ‫ר‬ፎ ָ‫ל־ה‬ ָⅴ is
precluded most decidedly, by the fact that mizzeh does not mean “thence,” i.e., from the
whole land, but when used adverbially of any place, invariably signifies “hence,” and
refers to the place where the speaker himself is standing. Moreover, the double use of
mizzeh is at variance with any allusion to hâ'ârets, as well as the fact that if it belonged to
the verb, it would stand after ָ‫מוֹה‬ ָⅴ, whether before or after the verb. Niqqâh, the niphal,
signifies here to be cleaned out, like καθαρίζεσωαι in Mar_7:19 (cf. 1Ki_14:10; Deu_
17:12). This is explained in Zec_5:4 thus: Jehovah causes the curse to go forth and enter
into the house of the thief and perjurer, so that it will pass the night there, i.e., stay there
(lâneh third pers. perf. of lūn, from lânâh, to be blunted, like zûreh in Isa_59:5, and other
verbal formations); it will not remain idle, however, but work therein, destroying both
the house and sinners therein, so that beams and stones will be consumed (cf. 1Ki_
18:38). The suffix in ‫וּ‬ ַ ִⅴ (for ‫הוּ‬ ְ‫ת‬ ַ ִⅴ, cf. Ges. §75, Anm. 19) refers to the house, of course
including the inhabitants. The following nouns introduced with ‫ת‬ ֶ‫א‬ְ‫ו‬ are in explanatory
apposition: both its beams and its stones. The roll therefore symbolizes the curse which
will fall upon sinners throughout the whole land, consuming them with their houses,
and thus sweeping them out of the nation of God.

5. CALVI , "The angel shows in this chapter, that whatever evils the Jews had
suffered, proceeded from the righteous judgment Of God; and then he adds a
consolation — that the Lord would at length alleviate or put an end to their evils,
when he had removed afar off their iniquity. Interpreters have touched neither
heaven nor earth in their explanation of this prophecy, for they have not regarded
the design of the Holy Spirit. Some think that by the volume are to be understood
false and perverted glosses, by which the purity of doctrine had been vitiated; but
this view can by no means be received. There is no doubt but that God intended to
show to Zechariah, that the Jews were justly punished, because the whole land was
full of thefts and perjuries. As then religion had been despised, as well as equity and
justice, he shows that it was no wonder that a curse had prevailed through the whole
land, the Jews leaving by their impiety and other sins extremely provoked the wrath
of God. This is the import of the first part. And, then, as this vision was terrible,
there is added some alleviation by representing iniquity in a measure, and the
mouth of the measure closed, and afterwards carried to the land of Shinar, that is,
into Chaldea, that it might not remain in Judea. Thus in the former part the
Prophet’s design was to humble the Jews, and to encourage them to repent, so that
they might own God to have been justly angry; and then he gives them reason to
entertain hope, and fully to expect an end to their evils, for the Lord would remove
to a distance and transfer their iniquity to Chaldea, so that Judea might be pure and
free from every wickedness, both from thefts and acts of injustice, by which it had
been previously polluted. But every sentence must be in order explained, that the
meaning of the Prophet may be more clearly seen.
He says, that he had returned; (54) and by this word this vision is separated front
the preceding visions, and those also of which we have hitherto spoken, were not at
the same time exhibited to the Prophet, but he saw them at different times. We may
hence learn that some time intervened before the Lord presented to him the vision
narrated in this chapter. He adds, that he raised up his eyes and looked; and this is
said that we may know that what he narrates was shown to him by the prophetic
Spirit. Zechariah very often raised up his eyes though God did not immediately
appear to him; but it behaved God’s servants, whenever they girded themselves for
the purpose of teaching, to withdraw themselves as it were from the society of men,
and to rise up above the world. The raising up of the eyes then, mentioned by
Zechariah, signified something special, as though he had said, that he was prepared,
for the Lord had inwardly roused him. The Prophets also, no doubt, were in this
manner by degrees prepared, when the Lord made himself known to them. There
was then the raising up of the eyes as a preparation to receive the celestial oracle.
COFFMA , "Two more of the eight visions are in this chapter, that of the flying
roll, and that of the lead-covered ephah. Radically different views about the
meaning of these visions have been advocated; and it must be confessed that they
are somewhat difficult of interpretation. Some think that the Law and the Gospel
are meant, the Law by the flying roll, and the Gospel by the symbolical removal of

6. "sin" to Babylon, the contrast being, that whereas under the Law, the violators
were adjudged guilty and summary judgment executed, on the other hand, under
the Gospel, the very principle of sin is taken far away. Although ingenious enough,
this interpretation is not convincing. It is mentioned here because it seems to be the
best of interpretations based upon the supposition that these are "a pair of visions."
Perhaps it is better to take them one at a time.
Regarding the "flying roll," this certainly must be seen as a symbol of the Law of
Moses, or as a figure of God's law for all mankind. The meaning of the stress laid on
"cutting off" offenders is much more difficult to ascertain. Without even attempting
any dogmatic determination of what these two visions mean, we shall explore the
best comments by which men have attempted to enlighten us regarding them.
Zechariah 5:1-2
"Then again I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and behold, a flying roll. And he said
unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is
twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits."
Taking the cubit as a measurement approximately of eighteen inches, the
dimensions of the roll were 30 feet 10:15 feet. Scholars find these to be equivalent to
the dimensions of Solomon's porch, or to the Holy of Holies in the ancient
tabernacle; but, when it comes to making any kind of a worthwhile deduction based
upon such facts, the commentators who cite them, "have not been able to furnish an
interpretation that is sufficiently obvious to commend itself to anyone except the
inventor!"[1]
The flying roll appears to be identified with the Law of Moses, because, "Being
written on both sides (Zechariah 5:3), they connect with the two tables of the Law
(Exodus 32:15)."[2] This impression seems to be confirmed by the fact that the two
specific violations mentioned, swearing and stealing, are the third and eighth
commandments respectively; and, "These represent the two tables of the Law,
dealing with duty to one's neighbor and duty to God."[3] This is logical, for the
third and seventh commandments are the middle ones in the two tables respectively.
Certainly, more sins than the two mentioned must be included.
"Let no one think this threat was only against thieves and swearers for God gave
sentence against all iniquity. All the law and the prophets hang on this word, Thou
shalt love God ... and thy neighbor as thyself."[4]
The fact of the roll being open and visible, as indicated by its dimensions being
stated, coupled with the fact of its being written on both sides, shows that no one
could plead ignorance of the law of God. It was open for all to see.
The fact of the roll being seen as flying would indicate that whatever blessing or
curse may be mentioned in connection with it would be swiftly and summarily
executed. Feinberg thought that, "The fact that it was flying indicated that its
disclosures were soon to be visited on the wicked."[5]

7. TRAPP, "Verse 1
Zechariah 5:1 Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a
flying roll.
Ver. 1. Then I turned me, and lifted up mine eyes] i.e. I prepared me to the receiving
of a new vision; nothing so comfortable as the former, but no less necessary; that the
people, by sense of sin and fear of wrath, might be taken off their wicked practices,
redeem their own sorrows, and be accounted worthy to escape all those things that
should (otherwise) come to pass, as Zechariah 5:11, and to stand before the Son of
man at that dreadful day, Luke 21:36. This seemeth to be the mind of the Holy
Ghost, in these two visions here recorded; which while some interpreters attend not,
in toto vaticinio neque coelum, neque terrain attingunt, saith Calvin, they are
utterly out.
And behold a flying roll] Or, volume, as Psalms 40:7, or scroll of paper, or
parchment, usually rolled up, like the web upon the pin, uti convolvuntur nostrae
Mappae Geographicae, as our maps are rolled up, saith a Lapide; and as in the
public library at Oxford the book or roll of Esther (a Hebrew manuscript) is at this
day to be seen; but here flying, Volans velocissimum ultionis incursum significat
(Chrysost.). ot only becanse spread wide open, as Rabshakeh’s letter, 2 Kings
19:14, and as that book of the prophet Isaiah, Luke 4:17, but also as fleeting along
swiftly, like a bird ready to seize on her prey. emo scelus gerit in pectore, qui non
idem emesin in tergo. o man bears evil in his heart who does not show the same
revenge on the outside. The heathens named emesis (their goddess of revenge, to
take punishment of offenders) Aδραστεια, because no man can possibly escape her,
οτι ουκ αν τις αυτην αποδρασαιτο. They tell us also that their Jupiter writeth down
all the sins of all men in a book, or scroll, made of a goat’s pelt, which they call
διφθερα; the very word whereby Aquila and Theodotion (two Greek translaters) do
render the Hebrew of this text. [Daniel 7:18 Revelation 20:12] Symmachus turns it
Kεφαλις, a chapter, or abstract of a larger book, full of sins and woes; and yet it is
of an unheard of size, Zechariah 5:2, and of very sad contents, like that book of
Ezekiel, Ezekiel 2:9-10, lamentation, and mourning, and woe; or the first leaf of
Bishop Babington’s book (which he turned over every morning), all black; to
remind him of hell and God’s judgments due unto him for his sins.
CO STABLE, "The next thing Zechariah saw in his visions was an unrolled scroll
flying through the air. This was a scroll that contained writing, the equivalent of a
modern book.
"A scroll (or roll), in Scripture symbolism, denotes the written word, whether of
God or man ( Ezra 6:2; Jeremiah 36:2; Jeremiah 36:4; Jeremiah 36:6, etc.; Ezekiel
3:1-3, etc). Zechariah"s sixth vision is of the rebuke of sin by the Word of God. The
two sins mentioned [in Zechariah 5:3] really transgress both tables of the law. To
steal is to set aside our neighbor"s right; to swear is to set aside God"s claim to
reverence." [ ote: The ew Scofield ..., p967.]

8. Verses 1-4
F. The flying scroll5:1-4
The priests and the kings in Israel were responsible for justice in the nation (cf.
Deuteronomy 17:9; 2 Samuel 15:2-3), though neither group could prevent
wickedness from proliferating. The sixth and seventh visions deal with the removal
of wickedness. This sixth one deals with the elimination of lawbreakers, and the next
one with the removal of wickedness from the land. What God promised in the
preceding two visions required the purging predicted in these two visions.
"At this point the series of visions takes a sharp turn from that which heretofore has
been comforting, to a stern warning that the Lord (Yahweh) is a holy God and
cannot brook evil." [ ote: Unger, p83.]
". . . before the blessing of the first five visions will be actualized, there will
intervene in the life of the nation a period of moral declension and apostasy. God
must and will purge out all iniquity, though He has promised untold glory for the
godly in Israel." [ ote: Feinberg, God Remembers, p82.]
BE SO , "Zechariah 5:1. Then I turned and lifted up — Or, again I lifted up,
mine eyes — For the verb ‫,שׁוב‬ to return, is often used adverbially; and behold a
flying roll — That is, a roll of a book, as the expression is Jeremiah 36:2 ; Ezekiel
2:9; the ancient way of writing being upon long scrolls of parchment, which used to
be rolled up. This roll contained an account of the sins and punishments of the
people, and is described as flying, both because it was open, and to denote the
swiftness of God’s judgments. Hitherto, from the beginning of this prophecy, “all
has been consoling, and meant to cheer the hearts of the Jewish people, by holding
forth to them prospects of approaching prosperity. But, lest they should grow
presumptuous and careless of their conduct, it was thought proper to warn them of
the conditions on which their happiness would depend; and to let them see, that
however God was at present disposed to show them favour, his judgments would
assuredly fall upon them with still greater weight than before, if they should again
provoke him by repeated acts of wickedness.” Accordingly, this warning and
information are given them by the visions of this chapter, which are of a very
different kind from the preceding ones. — Blayney.
COKE, "Introduction
CHAP. V.
By the flying roll, is shewed the curse of thieves and false swearers: The prophet
sees a woman sitting in an ephah, which two other women carry into the land of
Shinar.
Before Christ 519.
THE visions represented in this chapter are of a very different kind from the
preceding ones. Hitherto all has been consoling, and meant to cheer the hearts of the

9. Jewish people, by holding forth to them prospects of approaching prosperity. But
lest they should grow presumptuous and careless of their conduct, it was thought
proper to warn them of the conditions on which their happiness would depend; and
to let them see, that however God was at present disposed to shew them favour, his
judgments would assuredly fall upon them with still greater weight than before, if
they should again provoke him by repeated wickedness. Accordingly in the first of
these visions, which was the sixth in succession, the prophet is shewn an immense
roll of a book, like that which Ezekiel describes, chap. Zechariah 2:9-10 filled with
curses, and in the act of flying, to denote the celerity and speed, as well as the
certainty, with which the thief and false swearer, who might other wise flatter
themselves with hopes of impunity, would be visited to their utter destruction. The
next vision presents the appearance of an ephah, or measure, in which fate a woman
representing a nation, whose wickedness was arrived at such a height as required an
immediate check. Accordingly a heavy cover is cast upon her, and she is carried into
exile in a distant land, there to abide the full time allotted for her punishment.
Verse 1
Zechariah 5:1. A flying roll— See Ezekiel 2:9. Revelation 10:10. This flying roll
inclosed an account of the sins and punishments of the people, and is described as
flying, to denote the swiftness of God's judgments.
EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMME TARY, "THE SIXTH VISIO : THE WI GED
VOLUME
Zechariah 5:1-4
The religious and political obstacles being now removed from the future of Israel,
Zechariah in the next two Visions beholds the land purged of its crime and
wickedness. These Visions are very simple, if somewhat after the ponderous fashion
of Ezekiel.
The first of them is the Vision of the removal of the curse brought upon the land by
its civic criminals, especially thieves and perjurers-the two forms which crime takes
in a poor and rude community like the colony of the returned exiles. The prophet
tells us he beheld a roll flying, he uses the ordinary Hebrew name for the rolls of
skin or parchment upon which writing was set down. But the proportions of its
colossal size-twenty cubits by ten-prove that it was not a cylindrical but an oblong
shape which he saw. It consisted, therefore, of sheets laid on each other like our
books, and as our word "volume," which originally meant, like his own term, a roll,
means now an oblong article, we may use this in our translation. The volume is the
record of the crime of the land, and Zechariah sees it flying from the land. But it is
also the curse upon this crime, and so again he beholds it entering every thief’s and
perjurer’s house and destroying it. Smend gives a possible explanation of this: "It
appears that in ancient times curses were written on pieces of paper and sent down
the wind into the houses" of those against whom they were directed. But the figure
seems rather to be of birds of prey.

10. "And I turned and lifted my eyes and looked, and lo! a volume flying. And he said
unto me, What dost thou see? And I said, I see a volume flying, its length twenty
cubits and its breadth ten. And he said unto me, This is the curse that is going out
upon the face of all the land. For every thief is hereby purged away from hence, and
every perjurer is hereby purged away from hence, I have sent it forth-oracle of
Jehovah of Hosts-and it shall enter the thief’s house, and the house of him that hath
sworn falsely by My name, and it shall roost: in the midst of his house and consume
it, with its beams and its stones."
Verses 1-11
THE SEVE TH VISIO : THE WOMA I THE BARREL
Zechariah 5:5-11
It is not enough that the curse fly from the land after destroying every criminal. The
living principle of sin, the power of temptation, must be covered up and removed.
This is the subject of the Seventh Vision.
The prophet sees an ephah, the largest vessel in use among the Jews, of more than
seven gallons capacity, and round like a barrel. Presently the leaden top is lifted,
and the prophet sees a woman inside. This is Wickedness, feminine because she
figures the power of temptation. She is thrust back into the barrel, the leaden lid is
pushed down, and the Whole carried off by two other female figures, winged like
the strong, far-flying stork, into the land of Shin’ar, "which at that time had the
general significance of the counterpart of the Holy Land," and was the proper home
of all that was evil.
"And the angel of Jehovah who spake with me came forward and said to me, Lift
now thine eyes and see what this is that comes forth. And I said, What is it? And he
said, This is a bushel coming forth. And he said, This is their transgression in all the
land. And behold! the round leaden top was lifted up, and lo! a woman sitting inside
the bushel. And he said, This is the Wickedness, and he thrust her back into the
bushel, and thrust the leaden disc upon the mouth of it. And I lifted mine eyes and
looked, and lo! two women came forth with the wind in their wings, for they had
wings like storks’ wings, and they bore the bushel betwixt earth and heaven. And I
said to the angel that talked with me, Whither do they carry the bushel? And he said
to me, To build it a house in the land of Shin’ar, that it may be fixed and brought to
rest there on a place of its own."
We must not allow this curious imagery to hide from us its very spiritual teaching. If
Zechariah is weighted in these Visions by the ponderous fashion of Ezekiel, he has
also that prophet’s truly moral spirit. He is not contented with the ritual atonement
for sin, nor with the legal punishment of crime. The living power of sin must be
banished from Israel; and this cannot be done by any efforts of men themselves, but
by God’s action only, which is thorough and effectual. If the figures by which this is
illustrated appear to us grotesque and heavy, let us remember how they would suit
the imagination of the prophet’s own day. Let us lay to heart their eternally valid

11. doctrine, that sin is not a formal curse, nor only expressed in certain social crimes,
nor exhausted by the punishment of these, but, as a power of attraction and
temptation to all men, it must be banished from the heart, and can be banished only
by God.
HOLE, "Verses 1-11
THE OTHER SIDE of the picture meets us as we read chapter 5. In a sixth vision
the prophet saw a flying 'roll'; symbolically representing the law, extending its
authority over all the earth, and bringing with it a curse. The two sins specified —
stealing and swearing — both exceedingly common, represent sin against man and
against God. The fact that God acts in grace does not mean that there is any
condoning of sin, on which the curse lies. And as Galatians 3:10 tells us, 'As many as
are of the works of the law are under the curse'. A proper sense of this only
enhances our wonder, and appreciation of the grace of God.
The second part of this vision reveals what had to take place in view of this curse.
An ephah was the common measure of trade and commerce, and a woman is several
times used in Scripture as a symbol of a system; and systemized idolatry, linked
with profitable business had lain at the root of the evils that had led to the captivity
out of which the remnant had come; and the land of Shinar, where Babylon was
situated, had been the original home and hotbed of all idolatry. It was this that had
brought the curse upon the forefathers of the people. The whole system of this
idolatrous evil had to be deported to its own base.
ow this is what in figure seems to be depicted here. It was not so much a personal
matter, as presented in the cleansing of Joshua in chapter 3, but a national cleansing
from the sin of idolatry. This did come to pass historically, as we know, and from
about that time the Jews have not turned aside to the idols of the nations. If
Matthew 12:43-45, be read, we see how our Lord made reference to this act, and yet
predicted how ultimately they will be dominated by this sin in an intensified form.
But for the time being they were delivered.
PETT, "Verses 1-4
The Sixth Vision. The Flying Scroll - God’s Moral Demands Go Forth to Bring
Judgment (Zechariah 5:1-4).
Together with the establishment of the High Priesthood and the building of the
Temple, it is necessary for sin to be rooted out of the land. The purifying of the
people must be made fact. And this occurs now as the curse which results from
disobedience to the Law goes out among the people (compare Deuteronomy 30:7).
Zechariah 5:1-2
‘Then again I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, a flying scroll. And he said to
me, “What do you see?” And I answered, “I see a flying scroll twenty cubits long
and ten cubits wide.” ’
A scroll of ten cubits wide is a phenomenon (a cubit is from elbow to finger tip). Its

12. size indicates that its source is God, and that it is divinely effective. The fact that it is
flying indicates that what is written in it is being enacted or is about to be enacted.
Thus here we have a scroll from God going among the people.
Zechariah 5:3-4
‘Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes forth over the face of the whole
land. For every one who steals will be purged out according to it on the one side, and
everyone who swears (falsely) will be purged out according to it on the other side. ‘I
will cause it to go forth’, the word of YHWH of Hosts, ‘and it will enter into the
house of the thief, and into the house of him who swears falsely in my name, and it
will remain in the midst of his house and will consume it with its timber and
stones’.”
‘The curse’. The idea behind the word here is a curse resulting from obligation. It is
used in Deuteronomy 30:7 where it is linked with the curses put on all those who do
not obey God’s law. Its connection here with stealing and swearing falsely, two of
the ten commandments, suggests that the idea is that God’s commands go forth as a
curse on those who do not obey them. Indeed the idea of a curse on one or other of
these types of dishonesty are found in Judges 17:2; 1 Kings 8:31-32; Job 31:29-30
compare Psalms 24:4-5.
It is possible that theft and dishonesty before the courts of justice were two of the
major problems that had to be dealt with at this time if their society was to prosper.
It is distinctive of God’s word that honesty in word and action is always treated as
of prime importance. We can contrast this with lands and parts of society where the
word of God does not prevail and dishonesty is a way of life.
So God tells Zechariah that theft and false swearing must be dealt with severely
even to the breaking down of the houses of those who continue in them so that they
will leave the place (a Persian form of punishment, compare Ezra 6:11). And the
assurance is that even if justice cannot track down the perpetrators, God Himself
will. Thus this is a stern warning to those on the land that these things must be put
aside for they will no longer be treated lightly.
WHEDO , "Verse 1
1. The introductory formula is similar to that in Zechariah 2:1.
A… roll — Among the ancients written documents were preserved in the form of
rolls. LXX., omitting the final letter of the Hebrew word, reads “sickle,” which
would give good sense, but the dimensions given in Zechariah 5:2 favor the Hebrew
text.
Flying — Moving swiftly from the judgment throne above, where the destruction
was decreed, to its destination upon earth.
Verses 1-4
The sixth vision — the flying roll, 1-4.

13. In meaning this vision is similar to the seventh, but there seems insufficient reason
for thinking that the two are parts of one and the same vision. The prophet beholds
flying through the air an immense roll. He is told by the interpreter that the roll
symbolizes the curse of God, and that it will enter the houses of all evil doers and
consume them utterly. In Zechariah 3:9, is promised the removal of iniquity from
the land; this vision indicates one means by which this is to be accomplished,
namely, the destruction of the wicked.
PULPIT, "Zechariah 5:1
Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes; i.e. I lifted up mine eyes again, and saw the
vision that follows. The prophet had seen, in the fourth vision, how in the new
theocracy the priesthood should be pure and holy; in the fifth how the Church
should be restored; he is now shown that sinners should be cut off, that no
transgression should be left in the kingdom of God. A flying roll; volumen volans
(Vulgate): comp. Ezekiel 2:9, Ezekiel 2:10. The Hebrews used parchment and
leather scrolls for writing; the writing was divided into columns, and when
completed the document was rolled round one or two sticks and kept in a ease. In
the present vision the scroll is unrolled and exhibited in its full length and breadth,
showing that it was to be made known to all. Its flight denotes the speedy arrival of
the judgment, and, as it is seen in the heaven, so the punishment proceeds from God.
Theodotion and Aquila render the word, διφθέρα, "leather;" the Septuagint, by
mistake, δρέπανον, "a sickle."
BI 1-4, "And I turned . . . and looked, and behold a flying roll
The flying roll
The object of this discourse is to present to you the Scriptures as a phenomenon of the
world around us.
Consider them as an appearance in the circle of our observation, a fact in the history of
our race, and ask, what account is to be given of it? The attention of our age is taken up
much and wisely with the study of phenomena. We may interpret the Scriptures in one
way or another; we may study or neglect, revere or despise them; we may consider them
to be the dictates of observation, or below the level of human intelligence; we may call
them a word of delusion, or the Word of God; but in the extremest varieties of opinion
no one can escape from this,—that they are a leading phenomenon in the history of
civilisation and religious thought, in the aspect of the moral world as it now stands and
moves before us. In the text an angel speaks in vision to one of the last of the prophets,
and asks, as if in the very spirit of modern research, “What seest thou?” The prophet
raises his eyes and sees a winged book, “a flying roll.” It is of gigantic dimensions. It is of
restless speed. It “goeth forth over the face of the whole earth.” It was the roll of the
Lord’s judgments—a consuming fire. In this respect the Bible corresponds with it only in
one of its parts, but in that part perfectly: in its testimony against, unrighteousness, its
sentence upon those who love and practise dishonour, its “fiery law.” Dealing with the
“flying roll” more generally, what are the points that we discover in it?
1. The extraordinary dimensions of the book, “its length twenty cubits, and its
breadth ten.” What a space does the Bible fill in the gaze of mankind, though it can

14. be carried about in the hand of the feeblest wayfarer! Do we not speak truly of its
wonderful dimensions when it holds on its ample pages such a widely scattered
wisdom, and is discerned from so far?
2. Its preservation and continuance through so long a sweep of time. This is
remarkable even at a first glance. Since faithful Abraham came out from Chaldaea
vast tribes and strong nations have risen to renown and passed away into silence.
Founders of states have not so much as secured the name of what they founded.
Dispensers of religion have left neither a priest for their successor nor a shrine for
their monument. Oracles of wisdom have grown forgotten as well as dumb. Genius
and learning have gone down into the dust, and there is not a finger track of an
inscription upon it for their posterity to read. Whole literatures have disappeared,
their tongues having ceased, and their characters become illegible or blotted entirely
out. But here is writing, from many hands, and in a long series of instructions, dating
as far back as the school lessons of human improvement. It has defied time. It has
repelled decay. The linen, or the parchment, or whatever frail material it was
confided to, held fast its trust, while brazen trophies were melted down and marble
columns were pulverised. The temple of the Lord protected its archives; though its
huge stones were unable to hold themselves together, and its sacred vessels served at
last but for the ornaments of a heathen triumph.
3. Its spread. It is, indeed, a “flying roll.” The Scriptures move rapidly. They are not
only preserved, but incredibly multiplied. They were addressed for the most part to
one people, and they now speak to all people. They were written in their own peculiar
tongues, and now they call all tongues their own. Have they not “gone forth over the
face of the whole earth”? They are among the studies of learned men, who find there
a wisdom higher than all else they know; while the ignorant and the simple, reading
as they run, are made wise to life everlasting.
4. The honour with which they have been received as they have flown along. They
are recognised in the public worship of most of the civilised tribes now under
heaven. They are enshrined in cathedrals. They are revered, at least with all outward
forms of homage, in the courts of the proudest empires. They are sworn upon when
the most solemn vows by which we can be bound are to be attested. The patient
fingers of holy recluses could for centuries find no better task than to copy them; and
countless presses are now perpetually busy, that they may be distributed over the
globe. The rarest genius and the profoundest learning are employed upon the
illustration of them. It may be objected that we have said nothing of the disrespect
and derision with which the Scriptures are regarded by multitudes, and have always
been. We may admit this, but press the consideration, that they have withstood even
this trial. Familiarity and levity have not subjected them to contempt. Nothing could
better show how deeply they are seated in the veneration of mankind.
5. Their influence, their surprising power. There may be a high repute without any
true efficiency. But that roll of the Divine covenants has always been of a Divine
force. It has acted upon communities, wherever it has been introduced, so as to
accomplish the most astonishing consequences. Are you inquiring what overthrew
many of the massy oppressions, the enormous abuses, of the elder times? It was its
paper edges that smote upon all that dark strength, and before those thin leaves
buttress and battlement went down. How much has it done for individual minds.
6. Their immeasurable superiority, as mere traditions, above everything that has
been handed down to us from the ancient world. There is in their contents a deep
spring of instruction, such as the old generations nowhere furnish, and the coming

15. ones are not likely soon to exhaust. Your own minds will surely leap to the inference:
the finger of God was here. You may be perplexed with many passages in your Bible.
You may slight some things as unimportant, and repel others as uncongenial. You
may think you discern great blemishes and errors here and there. But what of that?
It should throw no mistrust over the spontaneous conclusion: the finger of God was
here. Yes, the Divine providence ordained and protected this charter of man’s truest
liberty and highest good. Let us look thoughtfully at it, then, as it flies on its holy
errand. (N. L. Frothingham.)
The flying roll
The import of this vision is threatening, to show that the object of the prophet was to
produce genuine repentance. The parts are significant. A roll, probably of parchment, is
seen, 30 by 15 feet, the exact dimensions of the temple porch; where the law was usually
read, showing that it was authoritative in its utterance, and connected with the
theocracy. Being a written thing, it showed that its contents were solemnly determined
beyond all escape or repeal. It was flying, to show that its threats were ready to do their
work, and descend on every transgressor. It was unrolled, or its dimensions could not
have been seen, to show that its warnings were openly proclaimed to all, that none might
have an excuse. It was written on both sides, to connect it with the tables of the law, and
show its comprehensive character. One side denounced perjury, a sin of the first table,
the other stealing, a sin of the second; and both united in every case where a thief took
the oath of expurgation to acquit himself of the charge of theft. This hovering curse
would descend in every such case into the house of the offender, and consume even its
most enduring parts, until it had thoroughly done its work of destruction. The
immediate application of this vision was to those who were neglecting the erection of
God’s house to build their own, and thus robbing God and forswearing their obligations
to Him. On such the prophet declares a curse shall descend that will make this selfish
withholding of their efforts in vain, for the houses they would build should be consumed
by God’s wrath. The teaching of this vision is that of the law. It blazes with the fire, and
echoes with the thunder of Sinai, and tells us that our God is a consuming fire. We learn
thus a lesson of instruction to those who have succeeded the prophets of the Old
Testament, as the authorised expounders of God’s will under the New. It is needful to tell
the love of God, to unfold His precious promises, and to utter words of cheer and
encouragement. But it is also needful to declare the other aspect of God’s character.
There is a constant tendency in the human heart to abuse the goodness of God to an
encouragement of sin. Hence ministers of the Gospel must declare this portion of God’s
counsel as well as the other. They must declare to men who are living in neglect of duty,
that withholding what is due to God, either in heart or life, is combined robbery and
perjury. For those who thus sin, God has prepared a ministry of vengeance. There is
something most vivid and appalling in this image of the hovering curse. It flies viewless
and resistless, poising like a falcon over her prey, breathing a ruin the most dire and
desolating, and when the blind and hardened offender opens his door to his ill-gotten
gains, this mystic roll, with its fire tracery of wrath, enters into his habitation, and,
fastening upon his cherished idols, begins its dread work of retribution, and ceases not
until the fabric of his guilty life has been totally and irremediably consumed. (T. V.
Moore, D. D.)

16. The flying roll
I. The man who is marked as a special transgressor is marked also for special judgment.
The curse went “forth over the face of the whole earth,” but it was to cut off the thief and
the false swearer. In the Hebrew nation there were many sinners, but there, as
everywhere else, there were sinners who had not yet filled up the measure of their
iniquity, and there were others who had passed all bounds, whose transgressions were so
great as to make them marks upon which the lightnings of God’s displeasure must fall.
II. Escape from the consequences of unrepented sin is impossible. It is not necessary
that the sin should reveal itself in action to ensure the entail of the certain penalty. If it
never passes the boundary of the inner man there will be a reaction upon the man’s
spirit as certainly as night follows day, and more so because, though God has suspended
the laws of nature, we have no reason to suppose He has ever interposed to prevent the
consequences of sin, unless the sinner has come under the power of another law,—the
law of forgiveness by confession and repentance. However hidden the transgression, the
curse will find out its most secret hiding place.
III. Theft and perjury include all other sins. The son who forges his father’s name
includes in that one act every other crime that he can commit against him except that of
taking his life. He only needs occasion to reveal his readiness for any other act of
dishonour toward his parent. The man who deliberately appeals to God to uphold him in
his false statements forges the name of the Eternal Himself, and seeks to turn the God of
truth into the Father of lies.
IV. The special sins of some bring suffering upon many. The curse went forth “over the
whole earth,” or land. It is a truth proclaimed by God and verified by experience, that
many may suffer by the sin of the few to whom they are in no way related. See this
principle, and its bright reverse, illustrated by St. Paul in Rom_5:18. (Outlines by
London Minister.)
The flying roll
The threatenings here are directed against the defects and transgressions of the Jewish
people at that time. God gives them to understand by this vision that whilst it was His
purpose to make His promise good, in the establishment of His Church, He would by no
means connive at their sins and corruptions, but would visit them with present
punishment, and with future extirpation, if they persisted in their unbelief and rebellion.
I. The sins more especially condemned.
1. Theft and sacrilege.
2. Perjury and false swearing.
II. The punishment threatened. Partly personal and partly domestic.
1. A personal judgment is denounced. Everyone shall receive his reward and
punishment according to his sins, and according to the sentence of the roll.
2. It was to extend to his relative and domestic interests. “It shall enter into the
house of the thief.” “It shall remain in the midst of his house.” “And shall consume it
with the timbers thereof, and the stones thereof.” This subject may well teach heads
of families a lesson of religious caution, lest by an undue anxiety for their own
worldly success, or that of their children, they frustrate their most cherished

17. purposes, and entail a curse rather than a blessing. We shall do well to remember
that no external evil which may befall a particular class of mankind, in consequence
of the faults of their progenitors, renders any individual of that class less acceptable
to God, if he turn from his wickedness and repent. But the very curse may become a
blessing, if it operate to warn an individual against the sin by which it was brought
down upon him. On the other hand, let no children of religious parents suppose that
the piety of a long line of ancestors will avail in their behalf, unless they are
themselves the possessors of religious principle. And since all are exposed to an
infinite danger on account of sin, how deep should be our gratitude to that Divine
Redeemer, who bore the curse for us, that we might escape the impending penalty,
and inherit the unspeakable blessings of His salvation. (S. Thodey.)
The flying roll—Divine retribution
I. As following sin.
1. The particular sins which retribution pursues.
(1) Theft and sacrilege.
(2) Perjury and false swearing.
The sins here mentioned are not mere specimens, but root or fountain sins. The “flying
roll” of Divine retribution followed sin with its curses. There is a curse to every sin, and
this is not vengeance, but benevolence. It is the arrangement of love.
2. The way in which just retribution pursues them.
(1) Openly. The roll is spread open, and is written in characters that are legible to
all Divine retribution is no secret to man. It is not some intangible, hidden, occult
thing. It is open to all eyes. Every man must see the “riving roll,” not only in the
history of nations and communities, but in his own domestic and individual life.
The “flying roll” hovers over every sin.
(2) Rapidly. Retribution is swift. It is a “flying roll.” Retribution follows sins
swifter than the sound of the swiftest thunder peal follows the lightning flash.
(3) Penetratingly. “I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter
into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by My
name.” Wherever the sinner is, it will find him out. No mountain so high, no
cavern so deep, no forest so intricate and shadowy as to protect him from His
visitation. It serves to illustrate retribution.
II. As abiding with sin. “It shall remain in the midst of his house.” Not only does it rule
the house of the sinner, “it remains in the midst of it” like a leprosy, infecting, wasting,
consuming, destroying. It abides in the house to curse everything, even the timber and
the stones. Guilt, not only, like a ravenous beast, crouches at the door of the sinner, but
rather, like a blasting mildew, spreads its baneful influence over the whole dwelling. The
sin of one member of a family brings its curse on the others. The sins of the parents
bring a curse upon the children. (Homilist.)
Judgment with consolation
The angel shows, in this chapter, that whatever evils the Jews had suffered, proceeded

18. from the righteous judgment of God; and then he adds a consolation—that the Lord
would at length alleviate or put an end to their evils, when He had removed afar off their
iniquity. Interpreters have touched neither heaven nor earth in their explanation of this
prophecy, for they have not regarded the designs of the Holy Spirit. Some think that by
the volume are to be understood false and perverted glosses, by which the purity of
doctrine had been vitiated; but this view can by no means be received. There is no doubt
but that God intended to show to Zechariah that the Jews were justly punished, because
the whole land was full of thefts and perjuries. As their religion had been despised, as
well as equity and justice, he shows that it was no wonder a curse had prevailed through
the whole land, the Jews having by their impiety and sins extremely provoked the wrath
of God. This is the import of the first part. And then, as this vision was terrible, there is
added some alleviation by representing iniquity in a measure, and the mouth of the
measure closed, and afterwards carries to the land of Shinar, that is, into Chaldea, that it
might not remain in Judea. Thus, in the former part the prophet’s design was to humble
the Jews, and to encourage them to repent, so that they might own God to have been
justly angry; and then he gives them reason to entertain hope, and fully to expect an end
to their evils, for the Lord would remove to a distance, and transfer their iniquity to
Chaldea, so that Judea might be pure and free from every wickedness, both from thefts
and acts of injustice, by which it had been previously polluted. (John Calvin.)
This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth—
The Lord’s curse
This type is expounded to signify the Lord’s curse going forth to do execution in all the
land of Judah, and to cut off sinners against the first and second tables of the Law.
Doctrine—
1. Whatever be the particular punishment inflicted by God for sin, yet this is
seriously to be laid to heart, that every such punishment hath in its bosom a curse,
till the sinner, awakened thereby, flee to Christ, who became a curse, that His own
may inherit a blessing.
2. The Lord is an impartial avenger of sin, when it is persevered in without
repentance; and when other means are ineffectual, He will not spare to cut off the
desperate sinner; for the curse goes forth “over the face of the whole earth,” or land;
and “everyone shall be cut off,” without exception, who are guilty.
3. The Lord will not spare but indifferently punish sin, whether against the first or
second tables, in avoiding of both which the Lord’s people are to testify their
sincerity. This is signified by “cutting off everyone that stealeth, and everyone that
sweareth.”
4. When a people are delivered out of sore troubles, and yet their lusts are not
modified, they ordinarily prove covetous, false, and oppressing, as labouring by all
means to make up these things that trouble hath stript them of; therefore is there a
particular threat against everyone that stealeth, it being a rife sin at their return
from captivity, for they went every man to his own house (Hag_1:9), were cruel
oppressors (Neh_5:1-3), yea, and robbed God of tithes and offerings (Mal_3:8).
5. Covetous and false men, in their bargains with men, will make no bones of impiety
and perjury, if that may help to gain their point; for with the former is joined
“everyone that sweareth,” which is expounded, Zec_5:4, to be “swearing falsely by

19. God’s name.” (George Hutcheson.)
It shall remain in the midst of his house—
A curse in the family
As certain as the ordinances of nature, is the law that ill-gotten gain will bring a curse.
The following is a startling illustration of the truth, gathered from the history of a rural
town:—“In 1786, a youth, then residing in Maine, owned a jackknife, which he, being of a
somewhat trading disposition, sold for a gallon of West India rum. This he retailed, and
with the proceeds purchased two gallons, and eventually a barrel, which was followed in
due time with a large stock. In a word, he got rich, and became the squire of the district,
through the possession and sale of the jackknife, and an indomitable trading industry.
He died, leaving property, in real estate and money value, worth eighty thousand dollars.
This was divided by testament among four children, three boys and a girl. Luck, which
seemed the guardian angel of the father, deserted the children; for every folly and
extravagance they could engage in seemed to occupy their exclusive attention and
cultivation. The daughter married unfortunately, and her patrimony was soon thrown
away by her spendthrift of a husband. The sons were no more fortunate, and two died in
dissipation and in poverty. The daughter also died. The last of the family, for many years
past, has lived on the kindness of those who knew him in the days of prosperity, as pride
would not allow him to go to the poor farm. A few days ago he died, suddenly and
unattended, in a barn, where he had laid himself down to take a drunken sleep. On his
pockets being examined, all that was found in them was a small piece of string and a
jackknife! So the fortune that began with the implement of that kind left its simple
duplicate. We leave the moral to be drawn in whatever fashion it may suggest itself to the
reader; simply stating that the story is a true one, and all the facts well known to many
whom this relation will doubtless reach.” (A. J. Gordon, D. D.)
A plague in the house
How terribly those words have been fulfilled in the case of people and families we have
known! It has seemed as though there were a plague in the house. The fortune which had
been accumulated with such toil has crumbled; the children turned out sources of
heartrending grief; the reputation of the father has become irretrievably tarnished.
“There is a plague spread in the house; it is a fretting leprosy, it is unclean.” No man can
stand against that curse. It confronts him everywhere. It touches his most substantial
effects, and they pulverise, as furniture eaten through by white ants. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
2 He asked me, “What do you see?”
I answered, “I see a flying scroll, twenty cubits

20. long and ten cubits wide.[a]”
BAR ES, "And he - (the interpreting angel) said unto me It cannot be without
meaning, that the dimensions of the roll should be those of the tabernacle , as the last
vision was that of the candlestick, after the likeness of the candlestick therein. The
explanations of this correspondence do not exclude each other. It may be that “judgment
shall begin at the house of God” 1Pe_4:17; that the punishment on sin is proportioned to
the nearness of God and the knowledge of Him; that the presence of God, which was for
life, might also be to death, as Paul says; “God maketh manifest the savor of this
knowledge by us in every place; for we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that
are saved and in them that perish; to the one we are the savor of death unto death, and
to the other the savor of life unto life” 2Co_2:14-16; and Simeon said, “This child is set
for the fall and rising again of many in Israel” Luk_2:34.
GILL, "And he said unto me,.... That is, the angel:
What seest thou? and I answered, I see a flying roll, the length whereof is
twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits; so that it was a very large one,
a volume of a very uncommon size, especially it may so seem to us; but in other nations
they have very long rolls or volumes, even longer than this: the Russians write their acts,
protests, and other court matters, on long rolls of paper, some twenty ells, some thirty,
and some sixty, and more (x): and this being the length and breadth of the porch before
the temple, 1Ki_6:3 hence the Jewish writers conclude that this flying roll came from
thence: it may design either the roll or book in which the sins of men are written; which
is very large, and will quickly be brought into judgment, when it will be opened, and men
will be judged according to it; which shows the notice God takes of the sins of men; the
exact knowledge he has of them; his strict remembrance of them; and the certain
account men must give of them another day: or, the book of God's judgments upon
sinners, such as was Ezekiel's roll, Eze_2:9 which are many and great; are rolled up, and
not at present to be searched into; but are flying, coming on, and will be speedily
executed: or rather the book of the law, called a roll or volume, Psa_40:7 and which will
be a swift witness against the breakers of it, as more fully appears from the explanation
of it in the next verse Zec_5:3. It is a mere fancy and conceit of some that the Talmud is
meant by this roll, the body of the Jewish traditions, which make void the commands of
God, take away the blessing, and leave a curse in the land, as they did in the land of
Judea.
JAMISO , "length ... twenty cubits ... breadth ... ten cubits — thirty feet by
fifteen, the dimensions of the temple porch (1Ki_6:3), where the law was usually read,
showing that it was divinely authoritative in the theocracy. Its large size implies the great
number of the curses contained. The Hebrew for “roll” or “volume” is used of the law
(Psa_40:7)
CALVI , "He afterwards adds, that he was asked by the angel what he saw. He

21. might indeed have said, that a roll flying in the air appeared to him, but he did not
as yet understand what it meant; hence the angel performed the office of an
interpreter. But he says, that the roll was twenty cubits long, and ten broad. The
Rabbis think that the figure of the court of the temple is here represented, for the
length of the court was twenty cubits and its breadth was ten; and hence they
suppose, that the roll had come forth from the temple, that there might be fuller
reason to believe that God had sent forth the roll. And this allusion, though not
sufficiently grounded, is yet more probable than the allegory of the puerile Jerome,
who thinks that this ought to be applied to Christ, because he began to preach the
gospel in his thirtieth year. Thus he meant to apply this number to the age of Christ,
when he commenced his office as a teacher. But this is extreme trifling. I do not feel
anxious to know why the length or the breadth is mentioned; for it seems not to be
much connected with the main subject. But if it be proper to follow a probable
conjecture, what I have already referred to is more admissible — that the length
and breadth of the roll are stated, that the Jews might fully understand that nothing
was set before them but what God himself sanctioned, as they clearly perceived a
figure of the court of the temple.
TRAPP, "Verse 2
Zechariah 5:2 And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying
roll; the length thereof [is] twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits.
Ver. 2. What seest thou?] q.d. Mark it well, and let thine eye affect thine heart; let
these things be oculis commissa fidelibus.
I see a flying book] {See Trapp on "Zechariah 5:1"} Some read it, A double book
(according to the Chaldaic signification of the word), as containing double, that is,
manifold, menaces and punishments of sin. But the Chaldee paraphrast, Septuagint,
and others, render it flying; as hasting and hovering over the heads of wicked
persons.
The length thereof is twenty cubits, &c.] Ten yards long, and five broad. either let
men say that words are but wind, as they did, Jeremiah 5:13. For, 1. Even wind,
when gotten into the bowels of the earth, may cause an earthquake; as when into the
bowels of the body a heartquake. 2. God threateneth those scoffers, Jeremiah 5:14,
that he will make that word, which they termed wind, to become fire, and
themselves fuel to feed it. And as fire grows quickly upon fuel fully dried, ahum
1:10, and consumeth it in an instant, so God’s flying roll will lick up the evildoers,
no otherwise than the fire from heaven after it had consumed the sacrifice, the
wood, the stones, and the dust, licked up also the water that was in the trench, 1
Kings 18:38. The threatenings of God’s law (the same with this roll) are (as Erasmus
saith of Ezekiel 3:18) fulmina non verba, lightbolts rather than words; or if words,
yet they are (as one saith) verba non legenda sed vivenda, words not to be read only,
but lived; at least, not to be read as men do the old stories of foreign wars, wherein

22. they are nothing concerned (but as threatening themselves in every threat, cursing
themselves in every curse, &c.), nor as they read the predictions of an almanack for
wind and weather, which they think may come to pass, and it may be not; but be
confident of this very thing, that God who hath denounced it will surely do it, and
that he will execute the judgment written in this roll, Psalms 149:9, yea, every
sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, them will the
Lord cause to descend upon the disobedient, until they be destroyed, Deuteronomy
28:61.
CO STABLE, "The prophet replied to the interpreting angel, who asked him what
he saw, that he saw a flying scroll that was20 cubits long and10 cubits wide (30 feet
by15 feet). Several commentators made connections between this scroll and the
tabernacle and the temple since these were the dimensions of the holy place of the
tabernacle ( Exodus 26:8) and the porch in front of the holy place of Solomon"s
temple ( 1 Kings 6:3). But this correspondence seems to be coincidental. The scroll
that Zechariah saw was open and large so people could read it easily. During the
restoration period the returnees demonstrated an increased interest in the Mosaic
Law, which was written on scrolls (cf. ehemiah 8). o one could plead ignorance
because the scroll in Zechariah"s vision was large enough for all to see and read.
ELLICOTT, "(2) He.—The angel-interpreter. (Comp. Zechariah 5:5.)
The length . . . and the breadth . . .—These were the dimensions of the holy place of
the Mosaic Tabernacle, also of the porch of Solomon’s Temple. If, then, we are to
consider the measurement of the scroll as symbolical, we may regard it as indicating
that the measure of the sanctuary is the measure of sin: that is, the sinner must not
say, “I am not worse than my neighbour,” but should measure his conduct by the
standard: “Become ye holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44; comp. Matthew 5:48).
BE SO , "Verses 2-4
Zechariah 5:2-4. The length thereof is twenty cubits, &c. — Such scrolls for writing
were usually longer than they were broad; so this was represented as ten yards in
length, and five in breadth. The roll was very large, to show what a number of
curses would come upon the wicked. Then said he, This is the curse, &c. — This
roll, or book, contains the curses, or judgments, due to sinners, particularly sinners
of the Jews, who have been favoured with greater light and privileges than other
people, and whose sins, therefore, are the more inexcusable. That goeth over the face
of the whole earth — Or rather, of the whole land; for the land of Judea only seems
to be here meant. Every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side, &c. — The
roll was written on both sides, as that mentioned Ezekiel 2:10 : and on one side were
contained the judgments against stealing, and on the other against false swearing.
These two sins are joined together, because in the Jewish courts men were
compelled to purge themselves by oath, in case they were accused of theft; and they
often would forswear themselves rather than discover the truth. Considering the
time when Zechariah prophesied, it seems probable, that those who made use of
fraud with respect to what had been dedicated to the rebuilding of the temple, and
restoring the service of God, are here particularly referred to. According to Calmet,

23. under the two names of theft and false swearing, the Hebrews and Chaldeans
included all other crimes; theft denoting every injustice and violence executed
against men, and perjury all crimes committed against God. Instead of on this side,
and on that side, ewcome reads, from hence, namely, from the land. And instead of
shall be cut off, the Vulgate reads, judicabitur, shall be judged; and Houbigant,
shall be punished. It must be acknowledged, however, that the Hebrew word ‫,נקה‬ so
rendered, rather means, carries himself as innocent, or, asserts himself to be
innocent; or, is declared innocent, or, left unpunished, namely, by the magistrate.
Blayney therefore translates the clause, Because, on the one hand, every one that
stealeth is as he that is guiltless; and, on the other hand, every one that sweareth is
as he that is guiltless. On which he observes, “The reason assigned for the curse
going forth through the whole land is, that the good and the bad, the innocent and
the guilty, were in every part of it looked upon and treated alike; so that it was time
for the divine justice to interpose, and make the proper distinction between them.”
And it shall enter, &c. — This curse shall come with commission from me; into the
house of the thief — Where he had laid up that which he got by theft, thinking to
enjoy it to his satisfaction. Or, by his house may be understood his family, estate,
and goods: it shall take hold of him, and all that belong to him, and shall never leave
them till their are utterly destroyed. And it shall remain in the midst of the house —
It shall stick close to them and theirs, as Gehazi’s leprosy did to him and his
posterity; or, like the leprosy that infects a house, and cannot be purged till the
house itself be pulled down.
WHEDO , "Verses 2-4
2. The interpreting angel calls the attention of the prophet to the new vision by
means of a question (compare Zechariah 4:2, and see references there). The roll was
unfolded, so that its immense size could be recognized.
Length… twenty cubits… the breadth… ten cubits — The measurements of the
porch of Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 6:3) and of the holy place in the tabernacle, as it
may be determined from Exodus 26, and as it is given by Josephus (Antiquities, iii,
Zechariah 6:4). The exact figures may have been suggested by one or the other of
these places, but it is not probable that they possess any special symbolic meaning;
all they are intended to do is to indicate the great size of the roll. The Hebrews
appear to have used two cubits, one a little longer than the other, but the data are
insufficient to determine the exact length of either; the length of the common cubit is
estimated at approximately eighteen inches (see Hastings’s Dictionary of the Bible,
article “Weights and Measures”).
The interpretation is given in Zechariah 5:3-4.
This is the curse — We must think of the roll as inscribed, perhaps upon both sides,
with a curse or curses, similar to those in Deuteronomy 27:15-26; Deuteronomy
28:15-68, though there is no reason to suppose that the prophet has in mind these
curses.
The whole earth — Better, R.V., “land.” Zechariah 5:6 and especially Zechariah

24. 5:11 clearly show that the reference is to Palestine or Judah, or at the most to the
extended Judah (Zechariah 2:11). Two classes of criminals are singled out.
Shall be cut off — The Hebrew verb is used ordinarily in the sense of acquit, free
from guilt; in this passage most commentators take it in a physical sense, clear away
— cut off, or destroy (Isaiah 3:26).
On this side — R.V., “on the one side”; better, margin, “from hence,” that is, from
the land.
According to it — According to the curses inscribed upon the roll. Some
commentators insist that the more common meaning of the verb should be retained;
if that is done the text of the rest of the verse must be changed. Wellhausen reads,
“For everyone that stealeth hath for long remained unpunished, and everyone that
sweareth hath for long remained unpunished”; therefore Jehovah is sending his
judgment.
Everyone that sweareth — Must be interpreted in the light of Zechariah 5:4 as
equivalent to “everyone that sweareth falsely by my name.” The Old Testament does
not condemn swearing per se; it condemns only false swearing (compare Hosea 4:2);
Matthew 5:34 ff., is on the ew Testament level.
I will bring it forth — Better and literally, I have caused it to go forth: it has already
started on its mission of judgment. Its destination is the houses of the evil doers.
Shall remain — Literally, lodge over night; but it will not sleep.
Shall consume — ot only will it announce the judgment, it will execute it.
It — The house, including the inhabitants.
With the timber thereof and the stones thereof — That is, utterly.
Only two forms of wickedness are specified, stealing and false swearing. It is hardly
likely, however, that these were the only sins recognized or prevalent in the days of
Zechariah; it seems better to regard these as types of two classes of wickedness,
stealing as representing all sins committed against man, false swearing by the name
of Jehovah as representing all sins committed against Jehovah. Under these two
heads all forms of sin may be grouped, as in the Decalogue. If this is done the vision
symbolizes the destruction of sinners of every sort.
PULPIT, "Zechariah 5:2
He said. The angel-interpreter spoke (Zechariah 4:2). The length thereof, etc.
Taking the cubit at a foot and a half, the size of the roll is enormous, and may well
have aroused the prophet's wonder. The dimensions given correspond to those of
the porch of Solomon's temple (1 Kings 6:3), twenty cubits long by ten broad. These

25. are also the dimensions of the holy place in the tabernacle, and of Solomon's brazen
altar (2 Chronicles 4:1). The careful statement of the size of the roll indicates that
some special meaning is attached to these measurements. We do not know that any
symbolical signification was recognized in the porch of the temple; but these
dimensions may well contain a reference to the sanctuary and the altar, as
Knabenbauer explains, "The curse is of the same measure as that altar which was
the instrument of expiation and reconciliation, and as that sanctuary which was the
entrance to the holy of holies." Others consider that the curse is pronounced
according to the measure of the sanctuary, i.e. according to the Divine Law; or that
all might thus know that it came from God, and that the possession of the temple did
not secure the people from vengeance unless they were pure and obedient.
3 And he said to me, “This is the curse that is
going out over the whole land; for according to
what it says on one side, every thief will be
banished, and according to what it says on the
other, everyone who swears falsely will be
banished.
BAR ES, "Over the face of the whole earth - primarily land, since the perjured
persons, upon whom the curse was to fall Zec_5:4, were those who swore falsely by the
name of God: and this was in Judah only. The reference to the two tables of the law also
confines it primarily to those who were under the law. Yet, since the moral law abides
under the Gospel, ultimately these visions related to the Christian Church, which was to
be spread over the whole earth. The roll apparently was shown, as written on both sides;
the commandments of the first table, in which perjury is forbidden, on the one side;
those relating to the love of our neighbor, in which stealing is forbidden, on the other.
Theodoret: “He calleth curse that vengeance, which goeth through the whole world, and
is brought upon the workers of iniquity. But hereby both prophets and people were
taught, that the God of all is the judge of all people, and will exact meet punishment of
all, bringing utter destruction not on those only who live ungodly toward Himself, but on
those also who are unjust to their neighbors. For let no one think that this threat was
only against thieves and false-swearers; for He gave sentence against all iniquity. For
since all the law and the prophets hang on this word, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart and thy neighbor as thyself,” He comprised every sort of sin under false

26. swearing and theft. The violation of oaths is the head of all ungodliness. One who so
doeth is devoid of the love of God. But theft indicates injustice to one’s neighbor; for no
one who loves his neighbor will endure to be unjust to him. These heads then
comprehend all the other laws.”
Shall be cut off - Literally, “cleansed away” , as something defiled and defiling,
which has to be cleared away as offensive: as God says, “I will take away the remnant of
the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, until it be all gone” (1Ki_14:10, add
1Ki_21:21), and so often in Deuteronomy, “thou shalt put the evil away from the midst of
thee” (Deu_13:5 (6 Heb.); Deu_17:7; Deu_19:19; Deu_21:21; Deu_22:21, Deu_22:24;
Deu_24:7), or “of Israel” Deu_17:12; Deu_23:22, and in Ezekiel, “I will disperse thee in
the countries and will consume thy filthiness out of thee” Eze_22:15. Set it empty upon
the coals thereof, that the brass of it may be hot and may burn, and the filthiness of it
may be molten, that the scum of it may be consumed” Eze_24:11.
CLARKE, "Every one that stealeth - and every one that sweareth - It seems
that the roll was written both on the front and back: stealing and swearing are supposed
to be two general heads of crimes; the former, comprising sins against men; the latter,
sins against God. It is supposed that the roll contained the sins and punishments of the
Chaldeans.
GILL, "Then said he unto me, This is the curse,.... So the law of Moses is called,
because it has curses written in it, Deu_27:15 which curse is not causeless, but is
according to law and justice; it is from the Lord, and is no other than the wrath of the
Almighty; and, wherever it lights, it will remain and continue for ever. Vitringa, on Isa_
24:6 says, this is the curse which Isaiah there prophesies of, which had its
accomplishment in the times of Antiochus; but there the prophet is speaking, not of the
land of Judea, but of the antichristian states.
That goeth forth over the face of the whole earth: over the whole land of Judea,
and the inhabitants of it, for their breach of the law, contempt of the Gospel, and the
rejection of the Messiah; and which had its accomplishment when wrath came upon
them to the uttermost, in the destruction of their nation, city, and temple; and is the
curse God threatened to smite their land with, Mal_4:6 and this curse also reaches to the
whole world, and the inhabitants of it, who lie in wickedness; and to all sorts of sinners,
particularly those next mentioned:
for everyone that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side, according to it; as it
is written and declared on one side of the roll:
and everyone that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it; as
is written and declared on the other side of the roll; which two sins of theft and false
swearing, the one being against the second, and the other the first table of the law, show
that the curse of the law reaches to all sorts of sins and sinners; to all who do not keep it
in every respect: and, indeed, to all but those who are redeemed from it by the blood of
Christ; and that it is proportioned according to a man's sins: and those two are
particularly mentioned, because they are sins which prevailed among the Jews at the
time Christ was on earth. Theft did, both in a literal and figurative sense, Mat_23:14 and

27. so did vain swearing, Mat_5:33.
HE RY, "How it was expounded to him, Zec_5:3, Zec_5:4. This flying roll is a curse;
it contains a declaration of the righteous wrath of God against those sinners especially
who by swearing affront God's majesty or by stealing invade their neighbour's property.
Let every Israelite rejoice in the blessings of his country with trembling; for if he swear,
if he steal, if he live in any course of sin, he shall see them with his eyes, but shall not
have the comfort of them, for against him the curse has gone forth. If I be wicked, woe to
me for all this. Now observe here,
1. The extent of this curse; the prophet sees it flying, but which way does it steer its
course? It goes forth over the face of the whole earth, not only of the land of Israel, but
the whole world; for those that have sinned against the law written in their hearts only
shall by that law be judged, though they have not the book of the law. Note, All mankind
are liable to the judgment of God; and, wherever sinners are, any where upon the face of
the whole earth, the curse of God can and will find them out and seize them. Oh that we
could with an eye of faith see the flying roll of God's curse hanging over the guilty world
as a thick cloud, not only keeping off the sun-beams of God's favour from them, but big
with thunders, lightnings, and storms, ready to destroy them! How welcome then would
the tidings of a Saviour be, who came to redeem us from the curse of the law by being
himself made a curse for us, and, like the prophet, eating this roll! The vast length and
breadth of this roll intimate what a multitude of curses sinners lie exposed to. God will
make their plagues wonderful, if they turn not.
2. The criminals against whom particularly this curse is levelled. The world is full of
sin in great variety: so was the Jewish church at this time. But two sorts of sinners are
here specified as the objects of this curse: - (1.) Thieves; it is for every one that steals,
that by fraud or force takes that which is not his own, especially that robs God and
converts to his own use what was devoted to God and his honour, which was a sin much
complained of among the Jews at this time, Mal_3:8; Neh_13:10. Sacrilege is, without
doubt, the worst kind of thievery. He also that robs his father or mother, and saith, It is
no transgression (Pro_28:24), let him know that against him this curse is directed, for it
is against every one that steals. The letter of the eighth commandment has no penalty
annexed to it; but the curse here is a sanction to that command. (2.) Swearers. Sinners of
the former class offend against the second table, these against the first; for the curse
meets those that break either table. He that swears rashly and profanely shall not be held
guiltless, much less he that swears falsely (Zec_5:4); he imprecates the curse upon
himself by his perjury, and so shall his doom be; God will say Amen to his imprecation,
and turn it upon his own head. He has appealed to God's judgment, which is always
according to truth, for the confirming of a lie, and to that judgment he shall go which he
has so impiously affronted.
JAMISO , "curse ... earth — (Mal_4:6). The Gentiles are amenable to the curse of
the law, as they have its substance, so far as they have not seared and corrupted
conscience, written on their hearts (Rom_2:15).
cut off — literally, “cleared away.”
as on this side ... as on that side — both sides of the roll [Vatablus]. From this
place ... from this place (repeated twice, as “the house” is repeated in Zec_5:4) [Maurer];
so “hence” is used, Gen_37:17 (or, “on this and on that side,” that is, on every side)
[Henderson]. None can escape, sin where he may: for God from one side to the other
shall call all without exception to judgment [Calvin]. God will not spare even “this place,”

28. Jerusalem, when it sins [Pembellus]. English Version seems to take Vatablus’ view.
according to it — according as it is written.
CALVI , "The angel then says, that it was the curse which went forth (55) over the
face of the whole land. We must remember what I have just said, that God’s
judgment is here set forth before the Jews, that they might know how justly both
their fathers and themselves have been with so much severity chastised by God,
inasmuch as they had procured for themselves such punishments by their sins. From
the saying of the angel, that the roll went through the whole land, we learn, that not
only a few were guilty, or that some corner of the land only had been polluted, but
that the wrath of God raged everywhere, as no part of the land was pure or free
from wickedness. As then Judea was full of pollutions, it was no wonder that the
Lord poured forth his wrath and overwhelmed, as it were with a deluge, the whole
land.
It afterwards follows, for every thief, or every one that steals, shall on this as on that
side, be punished, or receive his own reward; and every one who swears, shall on
this as on that side be punished. As to the words, interpreters differ with regard to
the particles, ‫כמוה‬ ‫,מזה‬ mese camue; some take the meaning to be, “by this roll, as it
is written;” others, “on this side of the roll, as on the other;” for they think that the
roll was written on both sides, and that God denounced punishment on thieves as
well as on perjurers. But I rather apply the words to the land, and doubt not but
that this is the real meaning of the Prophet. As then there is no respect of persons
with God, the Prophet, after having spoken of the whole land, says, that no one who
had sinned could anywhere escape unpunished, for God would from one part to the
other summon all to judgment without any exception. (56)
ow the Prophet says, that all perjurers, as well as thieves, shall be punished; and
there is nothing strange in this, for God, who has forbidden to steal, has also
forbidden to forswear. He is therefore the punisher of all transgressions. Those who
think that this roll was disapproved, as though it contained false and degenerate
doctrine, bring this reason to prove its injustice, that the thief is as grievously
punished as the perjurer: but this is extremely frivolous. For, as I have said already,
God shows here that he will be the defender of his law in whatever respect men may
have transgressed it. We must therefore remember that saying of James,
“he who forbids to commit adultery, forbids also to steal: whosoever then offends in
one thing is a transgressor of the whole law:” (James 2:11)
for we ought not simply to regard what God either commands or forbids, but we
ought ever to fix our eyes on his majesty, as there is nothing so minute in the law
which all ought not reverently to receive; for the laws themselves are not only to be
regarded, but especially the lawgiver. As then the majesty of God is dishonored,
when any one steals, and when any one transgresses in the least point, he clearly
shows that the word of God is not much regarded by him. It is hence right that
thieves and perjurers should be alike punished: yet the Scripture while it thus
speaks, does not teach that sins are equal in enormity, as the Stoics in former times

29. foolishly and falsely taught. But the equality of punishment is not what is here
referred to; the angel means only, that neither thieves nor perjurers shall go
unpunished, as they have transgressed the law of God.
We must also observe, that the mode of speaking adopted here is that of stating a
part for the whole; for under the word theft is comprehended whatever is opposed
to the duties of love; so that it is to be referred to the second table at the law. And
the Prophet calls all those perjurers who profane the worship of God; and so
perjury includes whatever is contrary to the first table of the law, and tends to
pollute the service due to God. The meaning is, — that God, as I have said, will be
the punisher of all kinds of wickedness, for he has not in vain given his law. Much
deceived then are those who flatter themselves, as though by evasions they can elude
the judgment of God, for both thieves and perjurers shall be brought before God’s
tribunal, so that no one can escape, that is, no wickedness shall remain unpunished;
for not in vain has he once declared by his own mouth, that cursed are all who fulfill
not whatever has been written. (Deuteronomy 27:26.)
And the same thing the Prophet more clearly expresses in the following verse, where
God himself declares what he would do, that he would cause the curse to go forth
over the whole land; as though he had said, “I will really show, that I have not given
the law that it may be despised; for what the law teaches shall be so efficacious, that
every one who violates it shall find that he has to do, not with a mortal man, nor
with sounds of words, but with the heavenly judge; I will bring forth the curse over
the whole land. ”
I have said, that the Prophet was instructed in the import of this vision, that all the
Jews might know that it was nothing strange that they had been so severely
chastised, inasmuch as they had polluted the whole land by their sins, so that no
part of the law was observed by them; for on the one hand they had corrupted the
worship of God and departed from true religion; and on the other, they distressed
one another by many wrongs, and oppressed them by frauds. As then no equity
prevailed among the people, nor any true religion, God shows that he would punish
them all, as none were guiltless.
On the previous words, “this is the curse,” Henderson makes the remark, that it is a
similar phrase to “this is my body,” that is, signifies my body; which is a mode of
speaking quite common in Scripture, and it is very strange that any should attach to
the phrase any other meaning.—Ed.
COFFMA , "Verse 3
"Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole
land: for every one that stealeth shall be cut off on the one side, according to it; and
every one that sweareth shall be cut off on the other side according to it."
We take the passage as an interpretation of the vision as a divine curse of evildoers,
as clearly indicated in our version. Scholars have sought by various methods to
make the passage have an opposite meaning. "The translation curse has committed

30. the passage to a sense which the original text does not necessarily support; it could
be blessing!"[6] Much as we might wish it so, the light available to this writer
requires its consideration as a curse.
"Everyone that sweareth ..." A number of scholars would make this a reference to
making a vain oath in God's name, or swearing falsely against a neighbor, but we
must identify it with the common vice of profane swearing, commonly called
"cursing." According to Watts, there is an exact quotation here from the Third
Commandment of the Decalogue, "Whoever takes his name in vain. The vision
obviously refers to Exodus 20:7, and even quotes exactly this law."[7]
"Shall be cut off ..." All sinners would be measured that they might be cut off from
the congregation of the Lord."[8]
The word rendered "curse" in this passage "is used several times in connection with
`covenant' (Genesis 24:41; 26:28; Deuteronomy 29:12; Ezekiel 16:59, etc.)."[9] From
this, it would appear to be a valid deduction that the covenant relationship between
God and the remnant who had returned from Babylon was primarily the thing in
view. Some have therefore understood the vision to mean that, whereas the whole
nation was punished for the sins of Israel which resulted in their captivity, God
would now punish, not the whole nation but only individual sinners. This is an
unacceptable view; because, when a whole nation falls generally into gross sin, the
judgment of God inevitable falls upon such a nation; and this flying scroll indicated
no change in that principle.
What does seem to be the lesson from the vision is that the returned remnant should
be careful to live up to the holy terms of their covenant with God, which was at that
time, and ever was, contingent upon their obedient faith in God.
The near-total destruction of Israel had just occurred as a result of the vast majority
of the people having indulged themselves in wholesale violations of the sacred law.
ow that God had rescued a remnant and reestablished them in Canaan, it was
imperative that they should not get the idea that God no longer was concerned
about their obedience of divine law. This vision was a dramatic reminder that God
most certainly did care. The law of God, so long despised and flouted, was not a
dead letter after all; like a flying scroll overshadowing the whole nation, his word
was living, active, and judgmental with regard to every single violator of it.
Dummelow understood the vision in this sense, saying, "The flying roll signifies the
sin of the evildoer coming home to roost."[10] It was a most necessary vision. The
great error of pre-exilic Israel was their unwarranted assumption that they were
"God's chosen people" no matter what they did.
We agree with Homer Hailey and others that in its primary intention the expression,
face of the whole land, "indicates not the whole earth, but the land of God's people,
wherever they may be."[11] However, the truth here revealed reaches far beyond
that. As Matthew Henry noted:

31. It goes forth over the face of the whole earth, not only of the land of Israel, but the
whole world; for those that have sinned against the law written in their hearts only
shall by that law be judged, though they have not the book of the law. All mankind
are liable to the judgment of God; and, wherever sinners are, anywhere upon the
face of the whole earth, God can and will find them out and seize them.[12]
Gill discussed this at length, basing his arguments upon Paul's writings in the first
two chapters of Romans, and fully supported the conclusion reached by Henry. This
appears to us to be correct.
" o individual, whether he accepts the written law or becomes a law unto himself,
consistently does in every situation of life what he believes to be right ... he proceeds
to violate even his own understanding of right and wrong ... Thus the curse of the
law covers the whole earth."[13]
Certainly the passage can have this meaning, as indicated in the Douay and King
James Version; and even the American Standard Version does not forbid this
understanding of it.
TRAPP, "Verse 3
Zechariah 5:3 Then said he unto me, This [is] the curse that goeth forth over the
face of the whole earth: for every one that stealeth shall be cut off [as] on this side
according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off [as] on that side
according to it.
Ver. 3. This is the curse] Or oath, with execration and cursing. Cursing men are
cursed men, and God hath sworn that swearers shall not enter into his rest.
{ umbers 5:21. ‫,אלה‬ ut et αρα Graece, iuramentum et execrationem significat.
Mercer}
That goeth forth] Yea, flieth, Zechariah 5:2, more swiftly than an eagle, an arrow, a
flash of lightning. Or, if not, yet
“ Poena venit gravior, quo mage sera venit. ”
Over the face of the whole earth] Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man
that doth evil; but of the Jew first ( Ingentia beneficia flagitia, supplicia), who is
therefore the worse, because he ought to have been better; and then of the Gentile
also, Romans 2:9. Theodoret, Lyra, and Vatablus think that Judaea is hinted in the
measure of the book (twenty cubits long, and ten broad) as being twice so long (and
somewhat more) as it is broad: witness Jerome in his epistle to Dardanus (Epist.
129). But let the whole earth here be taken in its utmost latitude, since the Gentiles
that sin without the law are yet liable to the punishments of the law. And some of
them by the light of nature saw the evil of swearing; but all generally of stealing; but
especially of perjury and sacrilege, here principally meant. Confer Malachi 3:8,
ehemiah 13:10.

32. For every one that stealeth shall be cut off] By stealing understand all sins against
the second table; as by swearing, all against the first; and so the sense is the same
with that of the apostle, "Every transgression and disobedience receiveth a just
recompence of reward," Hebrews 2:2. And "cursed is every one that continueth not
in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them," Galatians 3:10.
Howbeit because these two sins were more frequently and more impudently
committed in those days, therefore are they, by a speciality, instanced. The Jews,
coming poor out of Babylon, held it no great sin to steal for supply of their
necessities; and then to forswear themselves for the better hiding of their theft.
"Give me not poverty," said holy Agur, "lest, being poor, I steal, and" (as one sin
draws on another) "I take the name of my God in vain," Proverbs 30:9. {See Trapp
on "Proverbs 30:9"} Hunger is an evil counsellor, necessity a hard weapon, a sore
temptation, when it comes to this, Either I must steal or starve. But then to this must
be opposed that of the law, Thou shalt in no case steal. Thou must rather die than
do wickedly. Aut faciendum aut patiendum, Either obey the law or suffer the curse.
As on this side according to it] i.e. According to the curse, described in the roll, the
thief shall be cut off as well as the swearer; they shall speed alike. The tares shall be
bound up in bundles, thieves with thieves, and swearers with swearers, and burnt in
the fire, Matthew 13:30; Matthew 13:40. According to the prediction shall be the
execution. Whether on this side, that is, in Judaea (so some sense it), or on that side,
in other parts of the world, such persons appear, they shall have their payment.
And every one that sweareth] ot only falsely, as Zechariah 5:4, but lightly, vainly,
causelessly, in jest and not in judgment; whether by God, or by creatures and
qualities; Iudaeis et Pharisaeis vulgare vitium, saith Paraeus on James 5:12, a
common fault among the Jews and Pharisees, Matthew 5:34-35; Matthew 23:16;
Matthew 23:18. {See Trapp on "Matthew 5:34"} {See Trapp on "Matthew 5:35"}
{See Trapp on "Matthew 23:16"} {See Trapp on "Matthew 23:18"} Among the
Christians in Chrysostom’s time, as appears by his many sermons against it at
Antioch; and in these days, if ever, because of oaths the land mourneth, God hath a
controversy, Hosea 4:1-2. We have lived to see iniquity in the fulness of oaths and
blasphemies unparallelled darted with hellish mouths against God and our Saviour
so ordinarily and openly, that some of them are become very interjections of speech
to the common people, and other some mere phrases of gallantry to the bravo. I
knew a great swearer, saith a great divine (Mr Bolton), who, coming to his death
bed, Satan so filled his heart with a madded and enraged greediness after that most
gainless and pleasureless sin, that though himself swore as fast and as furiously as
he could, yet, as though he had been already among the bannings and blasphemies
of hell, he desperately desired the bystanders to help him with oaths, and to swear
for him.
CO STABLE, "The angel explained that the scroll represented the curses that God

33. had decreed against the Israelites who stole and who swore falsely in the Lord"s
name ( Zechariah 5:4; cf. Deuteronomy 28). According to what God had previously
written in the Law, those who stole and profaned His name would die, thus purging
the land of sin. The Hebrew word ha"arets can mean either "the earth" or "the
land." Here and in Zechariah 5:6 the primary meaning seems to be "the land,"
namely, the land of Israel. Writing was on both sides of the scroll, as it had been on
the stone tables that contained the Ten Commandments ( Exodus 32:15). On one
side there was a curse against Israelites who broke the eighth commandment (
Exodus 20:15), and on the other side was a curse for breaking the third
commandment ( Exodus 20:7). These two commandments, from the first part of the
Decalogue and the second part, which Zechariah"s contemporaries were apparently
breaking frequently, probably represent by synecdoche the whole Law (cf. James
2:10). Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which the writer uses a part or parts to
represent the whole or the whole to represent a part.
ELLICOTT, "(3) The whole earth.—Better, the whole land: viz., of Israel.
For every one . . . on this side . . . on that side according to it—i.e., according to the
curse written on this side and on that side of the scroll. But the Hebrew will hardly
bear this interpretation. Koehler proposes to render, instead of “on this side” and
“on that side,” “from hence” in both cases—viz., from the land. (Comp. Exodus
11:1). But the contrast, which is evidently implied here, precludes this
interpretation. We prefer to render, For every one that stealeth, on the one hand,
shall, in accordance therewith, be certainly destroyed; and every one that sweareth
[falsely], on the other hand, shall, in accordance therewith, be certainly destroyed.
Thieves are mentioned as a specimen of sinners against the second table of the
Decalogue: viz., as false to man; and false swearers as sinners against the first table:
viz., as false to God.
COKE, "Verse 3
Zechariah 5:3. Over the face of the whole earth— Over the face of the whole land:
for, on one hand, every thief shall be purged out according to it; and, on the other
hand, every swearer shall be purged out according to it. Instead of, shall be cut off,
Houbigant reads, shall be punished. This is the curse, means that in this volume is
written the curse, or the maledictions and judgments which God denounced against
the sinners of the land. Calmet observes, that under the two names of thief and
false-swearer, the Hebrews and Chaldeans comprehended all other crimes; theft
denotes every injustice and violence executed against men; and perjury all crimes
committed against God.
PULPIT, "Zechariah 5:3
This is the curse. The roll contained the curse written upon it on both sides. (For the
curse of fled upon guilty nations, comp. Isaiah 24:6; Daniel 9:11.) Earth; land; for
Judaea is meant. The curse was ready to fall on all who might come under it by their
transgressions. This would be a warning also to exterior nations. Every one that
stealeth … every one that sweareth. Thieves and perjurers are especially mentioned

34. as incurring the curse. Perjury is a chief offence in one table of the Law, theft in the
other; so these sins may stand for all offences against the Decalogue (comp. James
2:10, etc.). But probably they are named because they were particularly rife among
the returned Jews. Daring their long sojourn in Babylon they had engaged in
commercial pursuits and had fallen into the lax morality which such occupations
often engender. These bad habits they had brought with them and practised in their
new home (comp. Zechariah 8:17, and note there). Shall be out off as on this side
according to it; Revised Version, shall be purged out on the one side (margin, from
hence) according to it; Ewald, "driven hence like it." The reference is to the two
sides of the roll, answering to the two tables of the Decalogue. Sinners shall be i.e.
utterly consumed, cleansed away, i.e. according to the tenor of the roll. The Vulgate
has judicabitur; the LXX; ἕως θανάτου ἐκδικηθήσεται "shall be punished unto
death." That sweareth; i.e. falsely, as is plain from Zechariah 5:4; Septuagint, πᾶς ὁ
ἐπίορκος, "every perjurer."
4 The Lord Almighty declares, ‘I will send it out,
and it will enter the house of the thief and the
house of anyone who swears falsely by my name.
It will remain in that house and destroy it
completely, both its timbers and its stones.’”
BAR ES, "I will bring it forth - Out of the treasure-house, as it were; as he says,
“He bringeth forth the wind out of His treasures” Jer_10:13; Jer_51:16; and, “Is not this
laid up in store with Me, sealed up among My treasures?” To Me belongeth “vengeance
and recompense” Deu_32:34-35. And it shall remain, literally, “lodge for the night,”
until it has accomplished that for which it was sent, its utter destruction. Lap.: “So we
have seen and see at this day powerful families, which attained to splendor by rapine or
ill-gotten goods, destroyed by the just judgment of God, that those who see it are
amazed, how such wealth perceptibly yet insensibly disappeared.” Chrys. on the statues
15. n. 13. p. 259. Oxford Translation: “Why doth it overthrow the stones and the wood of
the swearer’s house? In order that the ruin may be a correction to all. For since the earth
must hide the swearer, when dead, his house, overturned and become a heap, will by the
very sight be an admonition to all who pass by and see it, not to venture on the like, lest
they suffer the like, and it will be a lasting witness against the sin of the departed.”
Paganism was impressed with the doom of him who consulted the oracle, whether he
should foreswear himself for gain. “Swear,” was the answer, “since death awaits too the

35. man, who keeps the oath; yet Oath hath a son, nameless, handless, footless; but swift he
pursueth, until he grasp together and destroy the whole race and house.” “In the third
generation, there was nought descended from him,” who had consulted about this
perjury, “nor hearthstone reputed to be his. It had been uprooted and effaced.” A pagan
orator relates, as well known, that “the perjurer escapes not the vengeance of the gods,
and if not himself, yet the sons and whole race of the foresworn fall into great
misfortunes.” God left not Himself without witness.
Lap.: “The prophet speaks of the curse inflicted on the thieves and false swearers of his
own day; but a fortiori he includes that which came upon them for slaying Christ. For
this was the greatest of all, which utterly overthrew and consumed Jerusalem, the
temple and polity, so that that ancient and glorious Jerusalem exists no longer, as Christ
threatened. “They shall lay thee even with the ground, and they shall not leave in thee
one stone upon another” Luk_19:44. This resteth upon them these” 1800 “years.”
CLARKE, "Into the house of him - Babylon, the house or city of Nebuchadnezzar,
who was a public plunderer, and a most glaring idolater.
GILL, "I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts,.... The roll was come forth,
and was flying abroad; but the curse and wrath of God, signified by it, is what God would
bring forth out of his treasures, according to his purposes and declarations, and execute
upon sinners; which shows the certainty of it, and that there is no escaping it:
and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that
sweareth falsely by my name; and it shall remain in the midst of his house,
and shall consume it with the timber thereof, and the stones thereof; when
wrath is gone forth from the Lord, there is no stopping it; and where it takes place it will
remain, there is no getting rid of it; it makes an utter desolation of goods and estates,
and entirely destroys both body and soul in hell: there seems to be an allusion to the
plague of the leprosy, Lev_14:45. So the son of Sirach says,
"a man that swears much shall be full of iniquity, and the plague shall not depart from
his house:''
and again,
"if a man swears in vain, he shall not be innocent or justified, for his house shall be full
of calamities (y).''
So the oracle in Herodotus (z), which Grotius has observed, makes an utter destruction
of a man's house and family, to be the punishment of the sin of perjury. Moreover, by the
house of the thief and swearer may be meant the temple, as in the times of Christ, which
was become a den of thieves and perjurers, and for their sins, became desolate, Mat_
21:13.
HE RY, "The enforcing of this curse, and the equity of it: I will bring it forth, saith
the Lord of hosts, Zec_5:4. He that pronounces the sentence will take care to see it

36. executed. His bringing it forth denotes, (1.) His giving it commission. It is a righteous
curse, for he is a righteous God that warrants it. (2.) His giving it the setting on. He
brings it forth with power, and orders what execution it shall do; and who can put by or
resist the curse which a God of almighty power brings forth?
4. The effect of this curse; it is very dreadful, (1.) Upon the sinner himself: Every one
that steals shall be cut off, not corrected, but destroyed, cut off from the land of the
living. The curse of God is a cutting thing, a killing thing. He shall be cut off as on this
side (cut off from this place, that is, from Jerusalem), and so he that swears from this
side (it is the same word), from this place. God will not spare the sinners he finds among
his own people, nor shall the holy city be a protection to the unholy. Or they shall be cut
off from hence, that is, from the face of the whole earth, over which the curse flies. Or he
that steals shall be cut off on this side, and he that swears on that side; they shall all be
cut off, one as well as another, and both according to the curse, for the judgments of
God's hand are exactly agreeable with the judgments of his mouth. (2.) Upon his family:
It shall enter into the house of the thief and of him that swears. God's curse comes with
a warrant to break open doors, and cannot be kept out by bars or locks. There where the
sinner is most secure, and thinks himself out of danger, - there where he promises
himself refreshment by food and sleep, - there, in his own house, shall the curse of God
seize him; nay, it shall fall not upon him only, but upon all about him for his sake.
Cursed shall be his basket and his store, and cursed the fruit of his body, Deu_28:17,
Deu_28:18. The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked, Pro_3:33. It shall not
only beset his house, or he at the door, but it shall remain in the midst of his house, and
diffuse its malignant influences to all the parts of it. It shall dwell in his tabernacle
because it is none of his, Job_18:15. It shall dwell where he dwells, and be his constant
companion at bed and board, to make both miserable to him. Having got possession, it
shall keep it, and, unless he repent and reform, there is no way to throw it out or cut off
the entail of it. Nay, it shall so remain in it as to consume it with the timber thereof, and
the stones thereof, which, though ever so strong, though the timber be heart of oak and
the stones hewn out of the rocks of adamant, yet they shall not be able to stand before
the curse of God. We heard the stone and the timber complaining of the owner's
extortion and oppression, and groaning under the burden of them, Hab_2:11. Now here
we have them delivered from that bondage of corruption. While they were in their
strength and beauty they supported, sorely against their will, the sinner's pride and
security; but, when they are consumed, their ruins will, to their satisfaction, be standing
monuments of God's justice and lasting witnesses of the sinner's injustice. Note, Sin is
the ruin of houses and families, especially the sins of injury and perjury. Who knows the
power of God's anger, and the operations of his curse? Even timber and stones have
been consumed by them; let us therefore stand in awe and not sin.
JAMISO , "The “theft” immediately meant is similar sacrilege to that complained of
in Neh_13:10; Mal_3:8. They robbed God by neglecting to give Him His due in building
His house, while they built their own houses, forswearing their obligations to Him;
therefore, the “houses” they build shall be “consumed” with God’s “curse.” Probably
literal theft and perjury accompanied their virtual theft and perjury as to the temple of
God (Mal_3:5). Stealing and perjury go together; for the covetous and fraudulent
perjure themselves by God’s name without scruple (see Pro_30:9).
enter ... the house — In vain they guard and shut themselves up who incur the
curse; it will inevitably enter even when they think themselves most secure.
consume ... timber ... stones — not leaving a vestige of it. So the “stones” and

37. “timber” of the house of a leper (type of the sinner) were to be utterly removed (Lev_
14:15; compare 1Ki_18:38).
CALVI , "He afterwards adds, It shall come into the house of the thief, and into
the house of him who swears in my name falsely; and there will it reside, and it shall
consume the hoarse, both the wood and the stones. Here the Prophet further
stimulates the Jews to repentance, by showing that the curse would so fly as to enter
into all their houses; as though he had said, “In vain shall they, who deserve
punishment, fortify or shut up themselves; for this curse, which I send forth, shall
come to each individual, and with him it shall remain.” We know that hypocrites so
flatter themselves, as though they could escape for the moment while God is angry
and displeased; but the Prophet shows here that vain is such a hope, for the curse
would overtake all the ungodly, and wholly overthrow them; yea, it would consume
their houses, both the wood and the stones. In short, he intimates, that punishment
ends not until men are reconciled to God. And by these words he reminds us how
terrible it is to fall into the hands of God, for he will punish the ungodly and the
wicked until he reduces them to nothing. We now then comprehend the design of the
Prophet and the meaning of the words. It now follows —
COFFMA , ""I will cause it to go forth, saith Jehovah of hosts, and it shall enter
into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my
name; and it shall abide in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the
timber thereof and the stones thereof."
"It will enter into the house ... etc." The thought is that there shall be no escape for
violators of the Word of God. ot merely the offender, but his very dwelling place
shall be consumed. In the community where this writer was reared, there are
numerous examples of this very thing having occurred. Some of the most impressive
houses in that community, where lived some who seemed not to know God, are
today gone; and the oldest citizens of the area dispute even the locations of some of
them.
"Him that sweareth falsely by my name ..." This suggests the inth Commandment,
not the Third, as in Zechariah 5:3; and, for this reason, the "swearing" in both
verses is understood by some as "bearing false witness against a neighbor," or as
taking an oath to support a falsehood. We believe this viewpoint is wrong; for it
turns out that "falsely" is one of those supplied words by which translators are
continually improving(?) the Bible.
"The word `falsely,' which is not in the Hebrew text of the O.T. (the original
Hebrew text), should certainly be supplied, and probably also `by my name'
(Zechariah 5:4). Zechariah singles out one moral and one religious sin as typical of
sin generally.[14]"
By changing the prohibition to "swearing falsely" in this verse, however, the result
is that both violations are "moral" lapses.

38. "The house of the thief ... and shall consume it ..." Efforts to make this passage a
blessing instead of a curse are seen in such comments as the following:
"The universal function of the scroll is shown in its coming "to the house of the
thief" and to the perjurer. It shall remain in their houses and "complete it"
(Consume, that is, complete the purging) both of the wood and the stones of the
house."[15]
Such interpretations are not acceptable. If the function of the flying roll's entering
the house of an evildoer was "to forgive him," cleanse him, and save him, how could
the wood and stones of his dwelling have participated in such a blessing? o, the
very mention of the timber and stones forbids such a view. Furthermore, it is simply
not a fact that "consume" ever meant, or even possibly could mean, "to complete
the purging."
As for those fanciful, preposterous interpretations which find millennial promises in
this passage, Keil stated that: "There is no allusion in our vision to the millennial
kingdom, and its establishment within the limits of the earthly Canaan."[16]
TRAPP, "Verse 4
Zechariah 5:4 I will bring it forth, saith the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter into
the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name:
and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber
thereof and the stones thereof.
Ver. 4. I will bring it forth] sc. Out of my treasuries or storehouses of plagues and
punishments, Deuteronomy 32:34. Or, That which thou hast seen in vision I will put
in action; I will produce it into the open light, into the theatre of the world; their
faults shall be written in their foreheads, their sins shall go before to judgment, my
visible vengeance shall overtake them.
And it shall enter into the house of the thief] Which he calleth his castle; and where
he thinks himself most secure, as out of the reach of God’s rod; as if he could mote
himself up against God’s fire. But what saith Bildad? "His confidence shall be
rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors. It shall
dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon
his habitation," Job 18:14-15, so that if the fire of God’s wrath do but touch it, all is
on a light flame. He will unkennel these foxes; and drag Cacus out of his den, to his
deserved punishment. Dioclesian, the persecutor (one of those Latrones publici,
public robbers, as Cato called them), giving over his empire, after he had
sufficiently feathered his nest, decreed to lead the rest of his life quietly. But he
escaped not so; for after that his house was wholly consumed with lightning and a
flame of fire that fell from heaven, he, hiding himself, for fear of the lightning, died
within a while after.

39. And into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name] Hence Ribera
gathereth that by the whole earth in the former verse is meant Judaea only: because
none but Jews swore by the name of the true God, who is indeed the proper object
of an oath, Isaiah 65:16, Jeremiah 12:6. Howbeit in lawful contracts with an infidel
or idolater oaths by false gods may be admitted, and are binding. As for perjury, it
is a provoking sin; as containing three great evils. 1. The uttering or upholding of a
lie. 2. The calling upon God to testify and justify a lie. 3. The praying for a curse
upon a man’s self; and beseeching God to be a swift witness against him, Malachi
3:1-7; as he was indeed against Zedekiah, arcissus in the ecclesiastical history, Earl
Godwin in Polydor, Virgil, Rodulphus, Duke of Suevia, Ladislaus, King of Hungary,
Dr London (Act. and Mon. fol. 1114), Richard Long, a soldier at Calais in King
Henry VIII’s days; who, deposing falsely against William Smith, curate of Calais
shortly after, upon a displeasure of his wife, desperately drowned himself. And
within the memory of man, Feb. 11, A. D. 1574, Anne Averies forswore herself at a
shop in Wood Street, London; praying God she might sink where she stood if she
had not paid for the wares she took. Hereupon she fell down presently speechless,
and with horrible stench died.
And it shall remain in the midst of his house] And be a troublesome inmate with
him, such as he cannot rid his hands of though never so fain; there it shall roost and
rest, in despite of him. If it distaste not his dough or empty his basket, yet will it fill
his store with strife, or mix the wrath of God with his sweet morsels; his meat shall
be sauced, his drink spiced, as Job 20:23. It is a moth in his wardrobe, murrain
among his cattle, mildew in his field, rot among his sheep, and often times maketh
the fruit of his loins his greatest heartbreak.
With the timber thereof and the stones thereof] As in case of treason or other
horrible crimes, the very houses of the offenders were pulled down and made a
dunghill, Daniel 2:5; Daniel 3:29. The Popish Council of Toulouse, gathered
together against those ancient Protestants, the Albigenses, made a decree that the
very house wherein a heretic was found should be pulled down, Illam domum in qua
fuerit inventus haereticus diruendam decernimus. The manor house of Milcot, in
Warwickshire, built by Lodovike Greevil, deeply guilty of these two grand evils
mentioned in the text, and lately burnt to the ground, is commonly looked upon as a
speaking monument of God’s just judgment against sacrilege and perjury, whether
men personally commit these sins or love them in others, Zechariah 1:17, Revelation
22:15.
CO STABLE, "Yahweh then promised to cause His curse to seek out the guilty and
to bring judgment on them. He personified the curse and pictured it going
throughout the land, even into homes, to seek out law-breakers. God"s Word still
had its ancient power even in post-exilic Judaism. Even the privacy of their homes
would not afford protection from the judgment that the Lord would send on those
of His people who broke His law.

40. In spite of the glorious promises of the future just revealed in the previous visions,
the Israelites needed to realize that sin would still bring inevitable divine
punishment on them. They needed to remain pure so they could avoid the Lord"s
curses and enjoy His promised blessings (cf. 2 Corinthians 7:1). They were still
under the Mosaic Law, including the Decalogue.
"It is striking that this vision plays down any human activity." [ ote: Merrill,
p166.]
"This whole passage is very valuable as a commentary on the nature of Christ"s
rule in righteousness in the millennial period as well as the severity of His dealing
with sinners once the day of grace is ended and the day of wrath and judgment is
ushered in with the opening of the seven-sealed roll of Revelation 5:1-9, loosing the
seals, trumpets, and bowl judgments that dispossess Satan, demons, and the wicked
men from the earth preparatory to the advent of the King of kings and Lord of lords
to establish His rule and kingdom." [ ote: Unger, p89.]
Amillennialists hold that "there is no allusion in our vision to the millennial
kingdom and its establishment within the limits of the earthly Canaan." [ ote: Keil,
2:281.]
ELLICOTT, "(4) It.—The curse, as borne on the scroll.
Bring forth.—As it were, from His treasure-house, where all pre-ordained events
are stored up (Deuteronomy 32:34-35).
And shall consume it.—In Herodotus (Book vi:86) there is an interesting parallel to
this verse. A Milesian had deposited with Glaucus a sum of money on trust. When
the sons of the depositor came to claim it, Glaucus consulted the oracle of Delphi
whether he might perjure himself and keep the money. The priestess told him that it
was best for the present to do as he desired, for that death was the common lot of
the honest and the dishonest. “Yet,” added she, “Oath hath a son, nameless,
handless, footless, but swift he pursues, until he seize and destroy the whole race
and house.”
PULPIT, "Zechariah 5:4
I will bring it forth. God will not keep the curse confined and inoperative
(Deuteronomy 32:34, etc.), but it shall enter into the house of the thief. The curse
shall not fall lightly and pass quickly by, but shall fix its abode with the sinner till it
has worked out its fell purpose. It shall remain; it shall pass the night—take up its
lodging; LXX; καταλύσει. With the timber thereof, etc. A hyperbolical expression of
the terrible effects of Divine vengeance, which consumes utterly like a devouring
fire—an adumbration of the destruction at the day of judgment (comp.
Deuteronomy 4:24; Malachi 3:2; Matthew 3:12).

41. The Woman in a Basket
5 Then the angel who was speaking to me came
forward and said to me, “Look up and see what is
appearing.”
BAR ES, "Then the angel went forth - From the choirs of angels, among whom,
in the interval, he had retired, as before (Zep_2:3 (7 Hebrew)) he had gone forth to meet
another angel.
GILL, "Then the angel that talked with me went forth,.... From the place where
he was, and had been interpreting the vision of the flying roll, unto another more
convenient for showing and explaining the following one; and, as it should seem, took
the prophet along with him:
and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth
forth; either out of the temple or out of heaven, into some open place, where it might be
seen.
HE RY 5-9, "The foregoing vision was very plain and easy, but in this are things
dark and hard to be understood; and some think that the scope of it is to foretel the
final destruction of the Jewish church and nation and the dispersion of the Jews, when,
by crucifying Christ and persecuting his gospel, they should have filled up the measure
of their iniquities; therefore it is industriously set out in obscure figures and expressions,
“lest the plain denunciation of the second overthrow of temple and state might
discourage them too much from going forward in the present restoration of both.” So
Mr. Pemble.
The prophet was contemplating the power and terror of the curse which consumes the
houses of thieves and swearers, when he was told to turn and he should see greater
desolations than these made by the curse of God for the sin of man: Lift up thy eyes
now, and see what is here, Zec_5:5. What is this that goeth forth? Whether over the face
of the whole earth, as the flying roll (Zec_5:3), or only over Jerusalem, is not certain.
But, it seems, the prophet now, through either the distance or the dimness of his sight,
could not well tell what it was, but asked, What is it? Zec_5:6. And the angel tells him

42. both what it is and what it means.
I. He sees an ephah, a measure wherewith they measured corn; it contained ten omers
(Exo_16:36) and was the tenth part of a homer (Eze_45:11); it is put for any measure
used in commerce, Deu_25:14. And this is their resemblance, the resemblance of the
Jewish nation over all the earth, wherever they are now dispersed, or at least it will be so
when their ruin draws near. They are filling up the measure of their iniquity, which God
has set them; and when it is full, as the ephah of corn, they shall be delivered into the
hands of those to whom God has sold them for their sins; they are meted to destruction,
as an ephah of corn measured to the market or to the mill. And some think that the
mentioning of an ephah, which is used in buying and selling, intimates that fraud, and
deceit, and extortion in commerce, were sins abounding much among them, as that
people are known to be notoriously guilty of them at this day. This is a proper
representation of them through all the earth. There is a measure set them, and they are
filling it up apace. See Mat_23:32; 1Th_2:16.
II. He sees a woman sitting in the midst of the ephah, representing the sinful church
and nation of the Jews in their latter and degenerate age, when the faithful city became
a harlot. He that weighs the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance measures
nations and churches as in an ephah; so exact is he in his judicial dealings with them.
God's people are called the corn of his floor, Isa_21:10. And here he puts this corn into
the bushel, in order to his parting with it. The angel says of the woman in the ephah,
This is wickedness; it is a wicked nation, else God would not have rejected it thus; it is as
wicked as wickedness itself, it is abominably wicked. How has the gold become dim!
Israel was holiness to the Lord (Jer_2:3); but now this is wickedness, and wickedness is
nowhere so scandalous, so odious, and, in many instances, so outrageous, as when it is
found among professors of religion.
III. He sees the woman thrust down into the ephah, and a talent, or large weight, of
lead, cast upon the mouth of it, by which she is secured, and made a close prisoner in the
ephah, and utterly disabled to get out of it. This is designed to show that the wrath of
God against impenitent sinners is, 1. Unavoidable, and what they cannot escape; they are
bound over to it, concluded under sin, and shut up under the curse, as this woman in the
ephah; he would fain flee out of his hand (Job_27:22), but he cannot. 2. It is
insupportable, and what they cannot bear up under. Guilt is upon the sinner as a talent
of lead, to sink him to the lowest hell. When Christ said of the things of Jerusalem's
peace, Now they are hidden from thy eyes, that threw a talent of lead upon them.
JAMISO , "Zec_5:5-11. Seventh Vision. The woman in the ephah. Wickedness and
idolatry removed from the Holy Land to Babylon, there to mingle with their kindred
elements.
The ephah is the Hebrew dry measure containing about a bushel, or seven and a half
gallons. Alluding to the previous vision as to theft and perjury: the ephah which, by
falsification of the measure, they made the instrument of defrauding, shall be made the
instrument of their punishment [Grotius]. Compare “this is their resemblance” (Zec_
5:6), that is, this is a representation of what the Jews have done, and what they shall
suffer. Their total dispersion (“the land of Shinar” being the emblem of the various
Gentile lands of their present dispersion) is herein fortetold, when the measure (to
which the ephah alludes) of their sins should be full. The former vision denounces
judgment on individuals; this one, on the whole state: but enigmatically, not to
discourage their present building [Pembellus]. Rather, the vision is consolatory after the
preceding one [Calvin]. Idolatry and its kindred sins, covetousness and fraud
(denounced in the vision of the roll), shall be removed far out of the Holy Land to their

43. own congenial soil, never to return (so Zec_3:9; Isa_27:9; Isa_52:1; Isa_60:21; Jer_
50:20; Zep_3:13). For more than two thousand years, ever since the Babylonian exile,
the Jews have been free from idolatry; but the full accomplishment of the prophecy is
yet future, when all sin shall be purged from Israel on their return to Palestine, and
conversion to Christ.
went forth — The interpreting angel had withdrawn after the vision of the roll to
receive a fresh revelation from the Divine Angel to communicate to the prophet.
K&D 5-8, "To this there is appended in Zec_5:5-11 a new view, which exhibits the
further fate of the sinners who have been separated from the congregation of the saints.
Zec_5:5. “And the angel that talked with me went forth, and said to me, Lift up now
thine eyes, and see, what is this that goeth out there? Zec_5:6. And I said, What is it?
And he said, This is the ephah going out. And He said, This is their aspect in all the
land. Zec_5:7. And behold a disk of lead was lifted up, and there was a woman sitting
in the midst of the ephah. Zec_5:8. And he said, This is wickedness; and he cast it into
the midst of the ephah, and cast the leaden weight upon its mouth.” With the
disappearing of the previous vision, the angelus interpres had also vanished from the
eyes of the prophet. After a short pause he comes out again, calls the prophet's attention
to a new figure which emerges out of the cloud, and so comes within the range of vision
(‫ּאת‬ ַ‫ה‬ ‫את‬ ֵ‫וֹצ‬ ַ‫,)ה‬ and informs him with regard to it: “This is the ephah which goeth out.” ‫א‬ ָ‫צ‬ָ‫,י‬
to go out, in other words, to come to view. The ephah was the greatest measure of
capacity which really existed among the Hebrews for dry goods, and was about the size
of a cubic foot; for the chōmer, which contained ten ephahs, appears to have had only an
ideal existence, viz., for the purpose of calculation. The meaning of this figure is
indicated generally in the words ‫כב‬ ‫ם‬ָ‫ינ‬ ֵ‫ע‬ ‫ּאת‬‫ז‬, the meaning of which depends upon the
interpretation to be given to ‫ם‬ָ‫ינ‬ ֵ‫.ע‬ The suffix of this word can only refer to the sinners
mentioned before, viz., the thieves and perjurers; for it is contrary to the Hebrew usage
to suppose that the words refer to the expression appended, ‫ץ‬ ֶ‫ר‬ፎ ָ‫ל־ה‬ ָ‫כ‬ ְ , in the sense of “all
those who are in the whole land” (Koehler). Consequently ‫ן‬ִ‫י‬ ַ‫ע‬ does not mean the eye, but
adspectus, appearance, or shape, as in Lev_13:55; Eze_1:4.; and the words have this
meaning: The ephah (bushel) is the shape, i.e., represents the figure displayed by the
sinners in all the land, after the roll of the curse has gone forth over the land, i.e., it
shows into what condition they have come through that anathema (Kliefoth). The point
of comparison between the ephah and the state into which sinners have come in
consequence of the curse, does not consist in the fact that the ephah is carried away, and
the sinners likewise (Maurer), nor in the fact that the sin now reaches its full measure
(Hofm., Hengstenberg); for “the carrying away of the sinners does not come into
consideration yet, and there is nothing at all here about the sin becoming full.” It is true
that, according to what follows, sin sits in the ephah as a woman, but there is nothing to
indicate that the ephah is completely filled by it, so that there is no further room in it;
and this thought would be generally out of keeping here. The point of comparison is
rather to be found in the explanation given by Kliefoth: “Just as in a bushel the separate
grains are all collected together, so will the individual sinners over the whole earth be
brought into a heap, when the curse of the end goes forth over the whole earth.” We have
no hesitation in appropriating this explanation, although we have not rendered ‫ץ‬ ֶ‫ר‬ፎ ָ‫ה‬ “the
earth,” inasmuch as at the final fulfilment of the vision the holy land will extend over all

44. the earth. Immediately afterwards the prophet is shown still more clearly what is in the
ephah. A covering of lead (kikkâr, a circle, a rounding or a circular plate) rises up, or is
lifted up, and then he sees a woman sitting in the ephah ('achath does not stand for the
indefinite article, but is a numeral, the sinners brought into a heap appearing as a unity,
i.e., as one living personality, instead of forming an atomistic heap of individuals). This
woman, who had not come into the ephah now for the first time, but was already sitting
there, and was only seen now that the lid was raised, is described by the angel as
mirsha‛ath, ungodliness, as being wickedness embodied, just as in 2Ch_24:7 this name is
given to godless Jezebel. Thereupon he throws her into the ephah, out of which she had
risen up, and shuts it with the leaden lid, to carry her away, as the following vision
shows, out of the holy land.
CALVI , "Here I stop; I intended to add all the verses, but I can hardly finish the
whole today. It will be enough for us to understand that this is the second part of the
vision, in which the Prophet, in order to relieve or in some measure to mitigate the
sorrow of the Jews, shows, that God would not treat them with extreme rigor, so as
to punish them as they deserved, but would chastise them with paternal moderation.
Hence he says, that a measure appeared to him and a woman in the measure. The
woman was wickedness; (57) there was also a covering of lead, a wide or an
extended piece. The plate of lead was borne upwards when the woman was seen in
the measure. He then says, that the measure was closed up, and that there impiety
was kept hid as a captive in prison. He afterwards adds, that it was driven away into
the land of Shinar, very far from Judea, and that wickedness was thus turned over
to the enemies of the chosen people.
We see that God, as I have already noticed, gives here a token of favor; for he says
that wickedness was shut up in a measure. Though then he had spoken hitherto
severely, that he might shake the Jews with dread, it was yet his purpose soon to add
some alleviation: for it was enough that they were proved guilty of their sins, that
they might humble themselves and suppliantly flee to God’s mercy, and also that
repentance might really touch them, lest they should murmur, as we know they had
done, but submit themselves to God and confess that they had suffered justly. Since
then the angel had already shown that the curse had deservedly gone over the face
of the whole land, because no corner was free from wickedness, the angel now adds,
that he came to show a new vision, Raise, he says, now thine eyes, and see what this
is which goes forth. The Prophet was no doubt cast down with fear, so that he
hardly dared to look any longer. As then the curse was flying and passing freely
here and there, the Prophet was struck with horror, and not without reason, since
he beheld the wrath of God spreading everywhere indiscriminately. This is the
reason why the angel now animates him and bids him to see what was going forth.
And he tells what was exhibited to him, for he saw a measure; which in Hebrew is
‫,איפה‬ aiphe: (58) and some render it measure or bushel; others, firkin or cask; but in
this there is no difference. When the Prophet saw this measure, he asked the angel
what it was: for the vision would have been useless, had he not been informed what
the measure and the woman sitting in it signified, and also the lead covering. He

45. therefore asked what they were.
COFFMA , "Verse 5
"Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift up now thine
eyes, and see what is this that goeth forth."
Here is the introduction of a new vision. As we shall see, this vision is utterly unlike
the previous one; and it is impossible to make any kind of satisfactory "pair" out of
them. Most of the difficulty in this chapter springs from what is seen here. The only
plausible interpretation which we have encountered is based upon the idea of "a
pair" of visions in this chapter is that of McFadyen. He said:
"Behind this fantastic picture lies the profoundest moral insight. The prophet sees
that the real enemy of a community is Sin, and that it is not sinners, nor even sins
only, but Sin itself that must be banished."[17]
This view, of course, would make the woman in the ephah a type of personification
of Sin; and we find all kinds of problems with that. Still, we can see merit in the
proposition that in the vision of the flying roll God is dealing with explicit sins and
sinners, and in the vision of the ephah being carried to Babylon a transfer of sin in
the sense of an evil principle being far-removed from God's people. Despite such
views, we shall deal with this second vision in Zechariah 5 as independent of the
other. As Leupold understood them, "It is scarcely feasible to regard these two
visions as two sides of but one vision."[18]
TRAPP, "Verse 5
Zechariah 5:5 Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift
up now thine eyes, and see what [is] this that goeth forth.
Ver. 5. Lift up now thine eyes and see] o doubt. saith Calvin here, the prophet was
frighted at the sight of the flying roll, full of curses "My flesh trembleth for fear of
thee," saith David, "and I am afraid of thy judgments," Psalms 119:120. And
Habakkuk, when he considered the cursed condition of the Church’s enemies, "my
belly trembled," said he, "when I heard it: nay lips quivered at the voice, rottenness
entered into my bones," Habakkuk 3:16. Daniel was more afflicted and troubled for
ebuchadnezzar’s calamity than himself was, Daniel 4:19. Here therefore the angel
encourageth the prophet: and biddeth him look up and see a further vision; and not
through dulness or dejectedness to let pass without due observation the notable
works and witnesses of God’s providence and power. Curious artisans, when they
set forth some special piece to public view, they take it ill when notice is not taken of
it; so here. {See Trapp on "Zechariah 5:1"}
CO STABLE, "The angelic guide next proceeded to instruct Zechariah to view
something else that was happening in his vision.
"So little is human nature capable of readily appropriating divine revelation that it
is not only necessary for God to let the necessary visions appear but also to stimulate
the recipient"s attention step by step lest, overcome by the power of the heavenly, he

46. fail to appropriate all that God desires to offer." [ ote: Leupold, p103.]
Verses 5-11
G. The woman in the basket5:5-11
The preceding vision described the future removal of individual sinners from the
land through divine judgment, and this one pictures the eventual removal of all
wickedness from the future "holy land" ( Zechariah 2:12; cf. Zechariah 3:9).
"In line with the scope of all eight of Zechariah"s night visions, the fulfilment [sic]
of this likewise extends into the millennial kingdom. evertheless the immediate
application of the vision to the prophet"s time and to the conditions then prevailing
is plain." [ ote: Unger, p91.]
ELLICOTT, "5) Angel . . . went forth.—The first scene of the vision disappears, and
with it, apparently, the angel-interpreter, who now “went forth,” i.e., appeared
again (see ote on Zechariah 2:3); so, too, “that goeth forth” means, that emerges
from the region of the invisible into that of the visible.
BE SO , "Verses 5-8
Zechariah 5:5-8. The angel that talked with me went forth — Or rather, went on, as
the verb ‫יצא‬ often signifies; (see 2 Chronicles 21:19; Jeremiah 25:32;) and so it may
signify at the end of this verse, and in the next, where it occurs again. And I said,
What is it? — What does this signify, or, what thing is this? And he said, This is an
ephah — An ephah was a measure containing somewhat less than our bushel, and
consequently too small for a woman to sit in; we must therefore understand here a
measure, in the form only of an ephah, but of a larger size, which was probably the
reason why Zechariah did not know what it was: and being the measure whereby
they bought and sold dry things, it seems to have been intended to denote the unjust
dealings of the Jews in buying and selling; their fraud, deceit, and extortion in
commerce, were sins abounding among them; as they are among that people at this
day. He said moreover, This is their resemblance — Or, as the LXX. render it, This
is their iniquity (reading ‫,עונם‬ instead of ‫עינם‬ ) through all the earth — Or, through
all the land; that is, by this you may make an estimate of their unjust dealings all
over the land. Besides the intimation given by this vision of the ephah, that the
dealings of the Jews with each other were unjust, its largeness and its going forth
corresponded with the iniquities that prevailed in the land, both as exceeding the
ordinary measure, and also as continually increasing, so as already to have arisen to
such a pitch as made it necessary to repress them. And behold there was lifted up a
talent — Or, a huge mass; of lead — This seems to have been intended to denote the
weight, or severity, of the judgments here threatened. And this is a woman, &c. —
What thou seest besides, is a woman sitting carelessly upon the ephah, and fearing
no evil. So Grotius, “super epha, superba et nihil mali metuens.” That she appeared
at first sitting upon the ephah, is evident from what is said in the following words,
namely, that the angel cast her into the midst of the ephah; which implies that she
was not there before. And he said, This is wickedness — This woman denotes
wickedness: or, this is iniquity itself, or corruption of heart, the mother or spring of
thefts, perjuries, and all kind of crimes. Blayney renders it, This is the wicked one.

47. Public states, or societies, are often represented by women, as the mothers of their
people, as we see in the ancient coins. By the same analogy, corrupt societies are
expressed by harlots, and women of lewd characters; so here, the corrupt state of
the Jews is set forth by a wicked woman. And he cast it — Rather, he cast her, into
the midst of the ephah — So the LXX., ερριψεν αυτην εις µεσον του µετρου. So also
the Vulgate. ewcome renders it, He cast her within the ephah, that is, (as he
explains it,) “caused her to contract herself within the compass of the vessel,
denoting the check given to her further progress.” And he cast the weight of lead
upon the mouth thereof — That is, of the epah, ne quis esset exitus, says Grotius,
that there might be no exit, or way of escape. Or to signify, that when a people have
filled up the measure of their iniquities, they sink under the weight of their sins, and
cannot escape the judgment of God, and that thus it should fare with the Jewish
people.
PETT, "Verses 5-11
The Seventh Vision. The Woman in the Measuring Vessel - Idolatry to be Removed
From the Land (Zechariah 5:5-11).
ot only must dishonesty and false witness be removed from the land, so also must
all connections with idolatry and wickedness. In this vision Zechariah sees such
things being removed to Babylon,
Zechariah 5:5-6
‘Then the angel who talked with me went forth and said to me, “Lift up your eyes
now and see, what is this that goes forth?” And I said, “What is it?” And he said,
“This is the ephah that goes forth.” He said as well, “This is their eye in all the
land.” ’
An ephah is a large unit of measurement (Leviticus 19:36) and became applied to
the vessel of the correct size which contained an ephah (Leviticus 19:36;
Deuteronomy 25:14). Here in Zechariah it is a measuring vessel with a lid. The
ephah will be carried from the land to Shinar by two winged women (Zechariah 5:9-
11).
ote how the prophet constantly questions the angel. He wants us to know that he
took care to ensure he had understood the visions correctly.
‘This is their eye’. The idea may be that this ephah is a testing measure which acts
like an eye, testing out and measuring the behaviour of the people. It may be the eye
of heavenly beings (compare Zechariah 4:10) or the eye of the judicial authorities
who represent the people. Or it may represent the idea of what is seen, and therefore
of all seeing it.
The Septuagint translates ‘eye’ as ‘iniquity’. This may well rather be an
interpretation although it may result from a different Hebrew reading. In that case
we would see the ephah as the measure of wickedness (Zechariah 5:8). In both cases
the idea is of behaviour measured and judgment carried out.

48. WHEDO , "Verse 5-6
5, 6. The interpreting angel is the first to appear.
Went forth — As in Zechariah 2:3. The several visions were separated from one
another by intervals of inactivity, during which the prophet meditated upon the
things seen and heard. During these intervals the angel was lost sight of, but when
the moment for a new vision arrived he stood forth. The expression may mean,
therefore, simply that the prophet again became aware of his presence. The vision
itself is presented in a manner somewhat different from the preceding. Zechariah is
exhorted to look; when he does so he becomes conscious of something, but fails to
understand what it is; then his companion explains.
This is an ephah that goeth forth — A free translation would express the thought
more clearly, “that which goeth forth (that is, appears, comes into sight) is an
ephah.” It is difficult to determine the exact capacity of the ephah (see on Amos 8:5),
but, speaking in general terms, it may be compared to a bushel (compare Hastings’s
Dictionary of the Bible, iv, p. 912). Since a measure of the size of a bushel cannot
contain a woman, the word must be used here of an ephah-shaped measure, without
reference to size.
Recognizing the mysteriousness of the vision, the angel immediately proceeds to
explain it.
This is their resemblance through all the earth — R.V., “This is their appearance in
all the land.” Of the two, R.V. is to be preferred. Much ingenuity has been expended
in the interpretation of this peculiar expression. Two attempts may be mentioned.
“The ephah is the shape, that is, represents the figure displayed by sinners in all the
land, after the roll of the curse has gone forth over the land; that is, it shows into
what condition they have come through that anathema.… Just as in a bushel the
separate grains are all collected together, so will the individual sinners over the
whole earth be brought into a heap, when the curse of the end goes forth over the
whole earth” (Keil). A slightly different interpretation is suggested by Perowne:
“This, namely, the ephah with all that you will see in the vision regarding it, is the
resemblance or representation of the wicked through all the land and of what shall
befall them.” These are only two out of a great number of suggested interpretations,
all of which are more or less artificial and require a stretch of the text and of the
imagination. The difficulty is entirely removed if we accept the LXX. reading, “their
transgression,” for “their resemblance”; the whole clause, “this is their
transgression in all the land.” The pronoun is explained by “in all the land,”
equivalent to “the transgression of the inhabitants of all the land.” This
transgression is symbolized by the ephah and its contents, though the latter have not
yet been revealed to the prophet. This translation and interpretation of Zechariah
5:5-6 seem to give a satisfactory sense, though it may be admitted that the reading is
not as smooth as it might be. The apparent awkwardness of the text leads owack
and others to alter it so as to read, following Lift up now thine eyes, and see —
“what is this ephah that goeth forth? And I said, What is it? And he said, That is

49. their transgression in all the land.”
Verses 5-11
The seventh vision — the woman in the midst of the ephah, Zechariah 5:5-11.
When the prophet lifts up his eyes again he beholds an ephah, in which is sitting a
woman. Its opening is securely fastened with a heavy cover. As the prophet
continues to gaze he sees two women with wings lifting up the vessel and carrying it
through the air. Upon inquiry he is informed that the woman is to be established in
the far-distant Shinar. As the vision unfolds the interpreter points out its symbolical
meaning. The woman represents wickedness, which, according to Zechariah 3:9, is
to be removed from the land. It is fastened securely in the ephah, but to make
practically impossible the pollution of the land it is to be removed to the distant
Shinar, there to be established forever. This removal will forever free the land from
wickedness. It is evident, then, that the seventh vision is a continuation and
complement of the sixth.
PULPIT, "Zechariah 5:5
Went forth. While the prophet meditated on the last vision, the interpreting angel
retired into the background or among the company of angels; he now comes into
view again to explain a new revelation closely connected with the former. That goeth
forth. That comes into sight from the surrounding darkness. As the preceding vision
denoted that sinners should be extirpated, so the present vision shows how iniquity
itself, the very principle of evil, should be removed from the Holy Land.
BI 5-11, "And this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah
The woman in the ephah
This vision, like the preceding, is of a warning character, and somewhat more obscure in
its symbolical apparatus.
A dim outline rises to the eye of the prophet, to which the angel calls his attention, but
which he cannot at first distinctly make out. The angel tells him that it is an ephah, a
very common dry measure, containing about three pecks. He then sees a mass of lead,
containing about a hundredweight, lifted up above the measure, and on looking more
closely he sees a woman in the measure. This woman is then violently thrust down into
the measure, and the mass of lead laid upon its mouth, after which two winged women
carry it away into the land of Shinar, where it was to be permanently deposited in a
house prepared for it there. The general meaning of this is to show that when the
measure of the people’s wickedness became full, then their punishment should come,
and they should again be carried into the land of their enemies in exile, not for seventy
years, but for a long time. As the flying roll symbolised the certainty and completeness of
their punishment, so this vision indicated its swiftness and mode. The ephah is selected
simply as a common dry measure, to symbolise the thought that there is a certain
measure of sin beyond which the people cannot go with impunity. The woman sitting in
it represents the Jewish people, by a common figure. The phrase, “this is their
appearance (Heb. eye) in all the land” (Zec_5:6), simply means, this represents that to
which the people are looking, or tending, namely, to fill up the measure of their sin, and
when they have done that, God will lay upon them their punishment. When the prophet

50. perceives the woman in the measure, he is told that this is (represents) wickedness, even
that of the Jewish people. Henderson thinks that the wickedness here represented was
idolatry, and that the vision predicted the removal of idolatry from Palestine to Babylon.
But there is no reason at all to limit it thus, but rather the contrary. Idolatry had not
been a sin of the Jews for a century, and would hardly be represented as an existing
thing, as this vision does. It did not exist in the land, and so could not be removed out of
it. Moreover, it was not removed to Babylon, in any sense, literally or figuratively, and
did not remain there as the vision declares (Zec_5:11), for the Mohammedan occupants
of that region were not idolaters. Hence the explanation that refers it to the entire
wickedness of the Jewish people of all kinds, is more consistent with the preceding
vision, and gives a better sense. The mass of lead symbolises the heavy judgments that
God was holding over them, and which at the fulness of time He would allow to fall.
Accordingly, the wicked woman is thrust down into the small measure, crushed and
doubled together, and the heavy weight laid upon her to keep her thus prostrate. Then
there appear two winged messengers, with outstretched pinions, as if the wind was
raising them up, and their wings were strong for flight like those of the stork. There were
two, because it required two persons to lift such a measure. They symbolised the
messengers of God’s wrath that should desolate Judea, and banish the people. They were
to carry it into Shinar, which is here the symbol for an enemy’s country, and not the
exact country to which they were to be exiled. There it was to be put in a house, shut up,
and this house to be built strongly and securely for a permanent habitation, to show that
this exile would not be, like the first, a brief sojourn, but a long, weary, and enduring
banishment from the land of their fathers; when their resting should not be on God, or
on the rock Christ Jesus, but “on their own base”; they should be left to themselves,
weighed down like lead with judicial blindness, stupidity, darkness, and hardness of
heart. The vision predicted what happened four hundred years afterwards, when the
measure of their iniquity being full by the rejection and murder of the Messiah, their
hearts being gross, and their care heavy, the hour of vengeance came. Then appeared the
Roman eagles, and after the most desperate struggle, the Jewish nation was crushed,
and scattered to the four winds, wandering in enemies’ countries, not resting on the
promise of God, but weighed down with leaden obstinacy, and resting on their own
works and righteousness. Learn—
1. Every individual, and every nation, has a measure of sin; and until that measure is
filled up, God’s longsuffering will wait for repentance and reformation.
2. There hangs above every sinner a crushing weight of wrath, poised and ready to
descend with overwhelming destruction.
3. If the measure is filled up, the weight shall fall, and crush the sinner with its
ponderous mass of punishment.
4. The finally impenitent shall be driven from God into loomy exile, and left to
himself, “to rest on his own base,” to be subject to the thrall of his own lawless lusts
that he has so long pampered into strength, and to reap as he has sowed, through a
long and limitless banishment. (T. V. Moore, D. D.)
Vision of the ephah
There are some portions of Old Testament prophecy which, at first, appear in meaning.
But upon closer examination they are found to contain important lessons, profitable for
all times. Such a prophecy is Zechariah’s vision of the ephah. Look—

51. 1. At the symbol as seen by the prophet. The ephah was a well known Jewish
measure, represented by our word “bushel.” The prophet saw’ such a measure
moving forth as if it were a thing of life, and in the midst of it sat a woman with a
talent of lead lifted up before her. The whole picture was a composite symbol, in
which were prominent the measure, the woman, and the talent of lead.
2. The meaning of the symbol. In verse 8 the Hebrew emphatic ally declares—“This
is the wickedness.” The most obvious suggestion is, that form of wickedness most
likely to ensnare and ruin the people to whom Zechariah prophesied. The symbols
point most naturally to the sin of unrighteous traffic, the root and essence of which is
covetousness (1Ti_6:10; Col_3:5). Why a woman rather than a man appears in the
symbol is somewhat difficult to say, but probably because of her power as a
temptress. The ensnaring images which have been most prominent in the great
systems of idolatry have borne the female form. This woman’s throne was an empty
measure, and her sign an uplifted talent of lead, thus aptly representing the sin of
those who would “swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail”
(Amo_8:4-6). This iniquity of unrighteous traffic appears to have ever been a
besetting sin of the Jewish people. The preceding oracle of this prophet (verses 1-4)
was directed against thieves, and those who swore falsely by Jehovah’s name; and
the obscure expression in verse 16 (lit., “this is their eye in all the land”) is perhaps
best explained as alluding to the fact that in all the land the eyes of thieves,
extortioners, and false swearers, turned longingly towards this tempting goddess of
covetousness.
3. The removal of this ephah to the land of Shinar indicates some kind of retribution
which will visit this form of wickedness. The woman was cast down into the empty
measure, and the leaden weight was cast upon her mouth (or on the mouth of the
ephah), and ephah, woman, and talent were lifted up, and carried off into a foreign
land; and the removal was effected by two women, who had wings like the stork, and
who were helped by the force of the wind. This part of the vision sets forth God’s
penal judgment upon this sin and its devotees. Among the various elements of this
judgment we note the following—
(1) Such wickedness as this composite symbol represented cannot abide in the
holy land of Israel, or inherit the kingdom of God. There must be, and there will
be, a renewal.
(2) The instruments of this woman’s sin are made to contribute to her
punishment. Her being cast into the ephah, with the leaden stone upon her
mouth, suggests the image of a covetous soul, cramped and crushed into the
narrow world of self, with nothing else to know or talk about than weights and
measures. Thus sold to covetousness one makes his own place, and goes to it; his
heaven is made his hell. He is made to live inside his own little half bushel, and
talk of nothing else than talents, stocks, bonds, corner lots, etc.
(3) By an irreversible law such natures are taken out of the fellowship of the pure
and good, and removed far from them, by others of their own kind. The world
will love his own, and when selfish interests are at stake, men and women of an
adulterous and sinful generation aim to help those who have helped them. So this
one woman was taken up and carried away by her like—aiders and abettors in
unrighteous traffic. When the angel had cast her into the ephah and put the stone
upon her mouth, these other women came to her rescue, and, for a season at
least, remove her to a more congenial place. The stork is mentioned probably for
no other reason than for being a well-known bird of passage, having notably large

52. wings, and abounding in the land of Shinar, in the Euphrates valley. The money
lovers of this world move rapidly in each other’s selfish interest, as if borne upon
the wings of the wind.
4. The land of Shinar is to be understood as the opposite of the land of Israel, which
in Zec_2:12 is called “the holy land.” It was the Babylonian plain, where the
descendants of Noah settled after the flood, and builded the city and tower, which
was the occasion of their being confused and scattered by the curse of Jehovah
(Gen_11:2). It was a land of idolatry, whither the Jewish people had, according to
Zec_2:6, been scattered as by the four winds of heaven. So this vision symbolised the
penal scattering abroad into an unclean land of all whose eye admired the goddess of
weights and measures more than Jehovah. The great moral lesson of the vision is
therefore a warning against covetousness and unrighteous traffic. Where the love of
money is so strong as to employ “balances of deceit,” and make “the ephah small and
the shekel great,” there will come curse and exile. The covetous man will suffer in
ways he little dreams of, and the very instruments of his sin may be turned into
modes of punishment. He who will serve Mammon must leave the house and land of
the Lord, and so all those Jews who loved the wages of unrighteousness might expect
sooner or later to be again scattered as by the winds of heaven. Their aiders and
abettors might come to their help, and even build for them a house in the foreign
land; but, like the tower of Babel, built by selfish ambition in the plain of Shinar,
even that house will be likely to prove a curse. This process of separating and
removing the lovers of this world from truth and holiness is ever going on in the
development of the kingdom of God. Judas loved silver, and was cut off and went to
his own place. Demas forsook the Apostle Paul from love of the world. John, the
apostle, speaks of those who went out from the godly because they were not of them
(1Jn_2:19), and Jude significantly mentions the sensual, having not the Spirit, as
they who separate themselves, or make separations. So, by the necessary antagonism
of opposite natures, the covetous must remove from the holy; for the narrow-
minded, self-centred worldling cannot inherit the kingdom of God. (Milton S. Terry,
D. D.)
The woman in the ephah
The question of the angel, and the answer of the prophet, suggest—
1. That the medium of Divine thought may be obscure to human understanding.
2. That which we are to communicate to others must be seen clearly by ourselves.
3. That what is difficult to one servant of God may be clear to another. The vision
probably refers to the general sin of the nation, which reached its height in the
rejection of Messiah, after which the nation was entirely removed from the land. It
suggests—
I. That time is needed for a nation to complete its destruction, as well as for its
construction. The ephah is a measure of considerable size; the idea conveyed is that,
when it is full, it is lifted up and carried away. The filling takes time, and the nation to
which the vision pointed did not all at once fill up the measure of its iniquity.
Wickedness is allowed to go on unchecked for a certain period, but only to give space for
repentance.
II. Sin first imprisons the sinner, and then separates him from the Divine presence. A

53. talent of lead shuts the woman into the ephah, which is then borne into the land of
Shinar. This foretells the constant dwelling of the Jews among the Gentile nations. The
man who finds himself in a condemned cell is really shut in and banished from his own
choice. So it was with the Jewish nation, and so it is with every man who rejects God’s
plan of regenerating him. He is self-imprisoned and self-banished.
III. Those who reject God’s plan of restoration will be left to their own. God offered to
the Jewish nation a sure foundation upon which to rebuild their national greatness (see
Isa_28:16). This they would not accept. Therefore they were banished from their land,
and, in the words of this prophecy, “set there upon their own base.” They were left to be
their own national architects and defenders, and the history of their bitter sufferings for
many centuries, and their present inability to gather themselves into a national whole,
shows how ill they succeed who prefer their own way to that which God offers to them.
This truth applies equally to every man who rejects the only foundation upon which his
character can be rebuilt into its original greatness. (Outlines by London Minister.)
A materialistic community
Utter mercenariness is an abhorrent object to an angel’s eye. The prophet still looks, and
what does he see? The meaning of the new scene may be easily discovered. The ephah,
with the woman in it, is carried away between earth and heaven, i.e. through the air.
Women carry it because there is a woman inside; and two women, because two persons
are required to carry so large and heavy a measure, that they lay hold of it on both sides.
These women have wings, because it passes through the air; and a stork’s wings, because
these birds have broad pinions, and not because the stork is a bird of passage or an
unclean bird. “The wings are filled with wind, that they may be able to carry their burden
with greater velocity through the air. The women denote the instruments or powers
employed by God to carry away the sinners out of His congregation, without any special
allusion to this or the other historical nation. This is all that we have to seek in these
features, which only serve to give distinctness to the picture.”—Thiel and Delitzsch.
I. Such a community is encased by the material. This woman, the emblem of the worldly
Jews, was not only “in the midst of the ephah,” but was closely confined there. “He cast
the weight of the lead upon the mouth thereof.” To an utterly worldly man matter is
everything. He is utterly shut out from the spiritual; there is no glimpse of it, no interest
in it. Like the woman in the ephah, he is encompassed by that which shuts him in. The
bright heavens and the green fields of the spiritual world are over and around him, but
they are nothing to him. He is in the ephah.
(1) Your secular scientist is in the ephah. He sees nothing but matter, believes in
nothing but matter.
(2) Your sensuous religionist is in this ephah. He judges after the flesh.
(3) Your man of the world is in this ephah. All his ideas of wealth, dignity,
pleasure are material.
II. Such a community is being disinherited by the material. This woman in the ephah,
emblem of the worldly Hebrew, is borne away from Palestine, her own land, into a
foreign region. Materialism disinherits man. His true inheritance as a spiritual existent
is “incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away.” But materialism carries him away
from it, away to the distant and the gross.
(1) The process was rapid. No bird so fleet with wing and foot as the stork, and

54. with this fleetness this woman in the ephah was borne. How rapidly do
animalism and worldliness bear away the spirit of man from the realm of
spiritual realities, from a love of the true and the beautiful!
(2) The process was final. “And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land
of Shinar: and it shall be established and set there upon her own base.” “To be
carnally minded is death. He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap
corruption.” What ruined Simon Magus? The world. What ruined Demas? The
world. And, “What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose
his own soul?” (Homilist.)
6 I asked, “What is it?”
He replied, “It is a basket.” And he added, “This
is the iniquity[b] of the people throughout the
land.”
BAR ES, "This is the ephah that goeth forth - Theodoret: “We too are taught
by this, that the Lord of all administers all things in weight and measure. So, foretelling
to Abraham that his seed should be a sojourner and the cause thereof, He says, “for the
iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” Gen_15:16, that is, they have not yet committed
sins enough to merit entire destruction, wherefore I cannot yet endure to give them over
to the slaughter, but will wait for the measure of their iniquity.” The relation then of this
vision to the seventh is, that the seventh tells of God’s punishment on individual sinners;
this, on the whole people, when the iniquity of the whole is full.
This is their resemblance, as we say, their look, that is, the look, appearance, of the
inhabitants “in all the land.” This then being the condition of the people of the land, at
the time to which the vision relates, the symbolical carrying away of the full measure of
sin cannot be its forgiveness, since there was no repentance, but the taking away of the
sin with the sinner. Cyril: “The Lord of all is good and loving to mankind; for He is
patient toward sinners and endures transgressors, waiting for the repentance of each;
but if one perseveres long in iniquity, and come to the term of the endurance allowed, it
remains that he should be subjected to punishment, and there is no account of this long
forebarance, nor can he be exempt from judgment proportioned to what he has done. So
then Christ says to the Jewish people, rushing with unbridled phrensy to all strange
excess, “Fill ye up the measure of your fathers” Mat_23:32. The measure then, which
was seen, pointed to the filling up of the measure of the transgression of the people
against Himself.” Jerome: “The angel bids him behold the sins of the people Israel,

55. heaped together in a perfect measure, and the transgression of all fulfilled - that the sins,
which escaped notice, one by one, might, when collected together, be laid open to the
eyes of all, and Israel might go forth from its place, and it might be shown to all what she
was in her own land.” Ribera: “I think the Lord alluded to the words of the prophet, as
though He would say, “Fill up the measure of sins” which your fathers began of old, as it
is in Zechariah, that is, ye will soon fill it; for ye so haste to do evil, that ye will soon fill it
to the utmost.”
CLARKE, "This is an ephah that goeth forth - This, among the Jews, was the
ordinary measure of grain. The woman in the ephah is supposed to represent Judea,
which shall be visited for its sins; the talent of lead on the ephah, within which the
woman was enclosed, the wrath of God, bending down this culprit nation, in the
measure of its sins; for the angel said, “This is wickedness;” that is, the woman
represents the mass of iniquity of this nation.
GILL, "And I said, What is it?.... After he had lifted up his eyes and seen it, he
desires to know both what it was, and what was the meaning of it:
and he said, This is an ephah that goeth forth; which was a measure much in use
with the Jews, Exo_16:36 it is the same with the "bath", and held above seven wine
gallons. The Targum interprets this of such who dealt in false measures, whose sin is
exposed, and their punishment set forth; but rather it designs the measure of iniquity
filling up, either in Judea, particularly in the times of Christ, Mat_23:32 or in the whole
world, and especially in the antichristian states, Rev_18:5, and
He said moreover, this is their resemblance through all the earth; or "this is
their eye" (z); what they are looking at, and intent upon, namely, this ephah; that is, to
fill up the measure of their iniquity: or, as Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it, this
ephah, which thou seest, shows that there is an eye upon them which sees their works;
and this is the eye of the Lord, which sees and takes notice of all the evil actions of men,
not as approving them, but as observing them, and avenging them. Cocceius, by the
"ephah", understands an abundance of temporal good things bestowed upon the
Christian church in Constantine's time and following, on which the eyes of carnal men
were looking.
JAMISO , "This is their resemblance — literally, “eye” (compare Eze_1:4, Eze_
1:5, Eze_1:16). Hengstenberg translates, “Their (the people’s) eye” was all directed to
evil. But English Version is better. “This is the appearance (that is, an image) of the Jews
in all the land” (not as English Version, “in all the earth”), that is, of the wicked Jews.
This — Here used of what was within the ephah, not the ephah itself.
CALVI , "Then the angel answered, This is the measure that goes forth, and this is
their eye in all the earth. By saying that the measure is their eye, he no doubt means
that the ungodly could not thus be carried away at their own pleasure, but that God
restrained them whenever it seemed good to him; for they could not escape his sight.
For by their eyes he understands passively the power of seeing in God, by which he
notices all the sins of the ungodly, that he may check them when he pleases, when
they hurry on without restraint. (59)

56. But that the meaning of the Prophet may be made more clear, let us first see what
wickedness means, — whether it is to be taken for those sins which provoked God’s
wrath against the Jews, — or whether for those wrongs which heathen enemies had
done. The last is the view I prefer, though if we take it for the wickedness which had
previously reigned in Judea, the meaning would not be unsuitable. For as
wickedness is hateful to God, his vengeance against the Jews could not have ceased
except by cleansing them from their sins, and by renewing them by his Spirit. For
they had carried on war with him in such a way, that there was no means of
pacifying him but by departing from their sins. And whenever God reconciles
himself to melt, he at the same time renews them by his Spirit; he not only blots out
their sins, as to the guilt, but also regenerates those who were before devoted to sin
and the devil, so that he may treat them kindly and paternally.
With regard then to the subject in hand, both views may be suitably adopted. We
may consider the meaning to be, — that God would take away iniquity from Judea
by cleansing his Church from all defilements, since the Jews could not partake of his
blessing except iniquity were driven afar off and banished. As God then designed to
be propitious to his people, he justly says, that he would cause wickedness to
disappear from the midst of them. Yet the other view, as I have said, is more
agreeable to the context, — that wickedness would not be allowed freely to prevail
as before; for we know that loose reins had been given to the cruelty of their
enemies, inasmuch as the Jews had been exposed to the wrongs of all. As then they
had been so immoderately oppressed, God promises that all unjust violence should
be driven afar off and made to depart into the land of Shinar, that is, that the Lord
would in turn chastise the Babylonians and reward them as they had deserved. The
import of the whole is, that God, who had chosen the seed of Abraham, would be
propitious to the Jews, so as to put an slid at length to their calamities.
COFFMA , "Verse 6
"And I said, What is it? And he said, This is the ephah that goeth forth. He said
moreover, This is their appearance in all the land."
"This is the ephah that goeth forth ..." The ephah was an indefinite measure in
common use, resembling a bushel, more or less, in size and capacity. Of the dozen or
more commentaries and dictionaries consulted on the size of the ephah, no two of
them gave the same answer! "The size is not definitely known, the size being
estimated at from 21.26 quarts to 40.62 quarts (Josephus)."[19] For properly
understanding the vision, a bushel basket is as good an answer as any.
"This is their appearance in the land ..." Does this description refer to the ephah, or
to the ephah and what was in it; or does it refer to the ephah being borne into a
distant country, or to the people represented by it before the departure? We have
found no way to answer this precisely.
Something in it, however, was descriptive of certain things to which Zechariah

57. called attention.
TRAPP, "Verse 6
Zechariah 5:6 And I said, What [is] it? And he said, This [is] an ephah that goeth
forth. He said moreover, This [is] their resemblance through all the earth.
Ver. 6. And I said, What is it?] i.e. What meaneth it? for the vision is very hard and
mysterious lest (saith one) the plain denunciation of the second overthrow of temple
and state might discourage them too much to go forward in the present restoration
of both. Hugh Broughton, on Daniel 2:4, observeth that while the visions are
general, and cause the Jews no danger, so far Daniel writeth in the Syriac tongue,
general over the East. But when the oppressors be named, and the Jews plainly
described the people whom God defendeth, then the eighth chapter and all after he
writes in Hebrew (a tongue less known and studied), and hath commandment to
keep close the plain exposition Daniel 12:4. There is a great deal of wisdom required
of those that are intrusted with the dispensation of divine truths. Our Saviour spake
as the people could hear, and not as he could have spoken. See Hebrews 5:11-12.
This is an ephah that goeth forth] The ephah was the greatest and most common
measure among the Jews; and is therefore generally put for any measure
whatsoever, Deuteronomy 25:14. By false measures (one kind of theft) they had
sinned (whence the Chaldee here, Isti sunt populi qui aceipiebant, et dabant
mensura falsa, These are the people that bought and sold by false measures), by the
same, therefore, their punishment is set forth and signified: a piece of their
punishment it was that they were bounded and limited; that wickedness was
confined and kept within her ephah. The Vulgate translates it amphora, a pitcher;
which, when it is once filled with the bitter waters of wickedness, will soon sink to
the bottom. Sinners, as they are stinted, so, when they have filled up their measure,
they are sure to be punished; when they are ripe in the field God will come with his
sickle; when their grapes of Sodom are full ready he will cast them into the
winepress of his wrath, Revelation 14:19, Genesis 15:16, Matthew 23:32.
This is their resemblance through all the earth] Heb. their eye, their aspect, their
colour. This, that is, this ephah, is their resemblance; sc. that when they have filled
up their sins they shall have their fill of punishment. Or this, meaning some
apparition representing God’s providence showed by the angel to the prophet, is
their eye, that is, the eye of the three persons in Trinity, God’s universal providence,
which presideth over his judgments, Zechariah 3:9; Zechariah 4:10; Zechariah 9:1.
Or thus: This ephah or measure of their punishment, proportionate to their sin, in
killing Christ especially, Matthew 23:32, shall be their eye through all the earth, i.e.
shall be conspicuous and apparent to all sorts; so that all men shall hate them, and
hoot at them for a company of kill-Christs, shall look upon them as a people of
God’s curse. Thus the Chaldee here, Behold, they are made manifest before all the
inhabitants of the earth; for all men shall be witnesses of their horrible both sins
and plagues.

58. CO STABLE, "Verse 6-7
The prophet asked what he saw was, and the angel replied that it was an ephah, a
basket that held about a half bushel (or five gallons) of dry (or liquid) material (cf. 1
Samuel 1:24; Ruth 2:17). Some authorities contend that an ephah was slightly more
than a bushel. The ephah was the largest dry measure among the Hebrews , and its
use here suggests that Israel"s sins had accumulated greatly in Zechariah"s day.
[ ote: The ew Scofield ..., p967.] The angel lifted up the lead cover on top of the
basket and revealed a woman sitting inside. A lead cover would be heavier than the
customary stone cover and would guarantee that what was inside would not get out.
Either the ephah was oversized, like the flying scroll, or the woman was a miniature
in Zechariah"s vision. Perhaps God used an ephah in the vision simply because it
was a standard container that people used to carry things in, similar to a barrel.
Some commentators have seen in the ephah a particular allusion to commercial
malpractice, since the ephah was used in commerce, but this may be over exegeting
the text.
"The woman, made visible by the lifting of the lead cover, is still, like the evil she
represents, mostly hidden from sight." [ ote: Baldwin, p128.]
The angel further explained that this is what the ephah and its contents would
resemble as they went forth in all the earth.
"As in the preceding vision, the earth (ha"arets) designates not merely Palestine,
although this is the primary reference, and the removal of godless commercialism is
first and foremost from "the land," which will then be in reality "the Holy Land" (
Zechariah 2:12 16]); but more broadly the term points to the entire millennial
earth." [ ote: Unger, p94.]
ELLICOTT, "(6) What is it?—i.e., What does it symbolise? For, of course, he could
see that it was an ephah.
This is an ephah . . . all the earth.—Better, This, the ephah that cometh forth, this,
continued he, is their resemblance throughout the whole lands: i.e., this is a symbol
of the sinners mentioned above. (For “resemblance” the LXX., by the change of one
letter, read iniquity.) The nature of the comparison is seen by some to be as follows.
As in an ephah the separate grains are all collected together, so will the individual
sinners over the whole length and breadth of the land be brought into one confused
heap. (Comp. Matthew 13:30.) It is not mentioned till later that they are to be
carried away.
COKE, "Verse 6
Zechariah 5:6. This is an ephah that goeth forth— The ephah that is going forth. An
ephah was a dry measure containing somewhat less than our bushel, consequently
too small for a woman to sit in; we must therefore understand here a measure in the
form only of an ephah, but of a larger size. And this is implied in its not being said
in the original to be an ephah, but "the ephah that is going forth;" doubly

59. corresponding with the iniquities that prevailed in the land, both as exceeding the
ordinary measure, and also continually increasing, so as already to have risen to
such a pitch, as made it necessary to repress them. This is the ephah that is going
forth, and such both in their extent and in their progressive state are iniquities over
the land.
This is their resemblance, &c.— This is their iniquity through all the land.
Houbigant, after the LXX and many other versions. See also Zechariah 5:8 where it
is said, This is wickedness, or iniquity; that is to say, "This is their theft, their
perjury, when they sell by a false measure of the ephah what they swear to be true
and exact."
PULPIT, "Zechariah 5:6
What is it? The prophet did not clearly discern the object, or his question may
mean, "What does it signify?" An ephah; the ephah, as "the curse" (Zechariah 5:3).
The ephah was the largest of the dry measures in use among the Jews, and was
equal to six or seven gallons. It was, of course, too small to contain a woman. The
LXX. calls it simply "the measure;" the Vulgate, amphora; and it must be
considered as an imaginary vessel of huge size. It may have a tacit reference to
dishonest dealings (comp. Amos 8:5; Micah 6:10). This is their resemblance;
literally, this is their eye. The Authorized Version explains the meaning accurately.
"Eye" is often used for that which is seen, as in Le 13:55, where the Authorized
Version has "colour;" and umbers 11:7, where in reference to the manna we read,
"The eve thereof was as the eye of bdellium" (comp. Ezekiel 1:4, Ezekiel 1:16). So
here the meaning is: This ephah and this whole vision represent the wicked in the
land. Some take "the eye" to mean the object of sight, that to which they look. But
the ephah was not sot forth for all the people to examine. The LXX. and Syriac,
from some variation in the reading, have ἀδικία, "iniquity," and some critics have
desired to adopt this in the text. But authority and necessity are equally wanting.
7 Then the cover of lead was raised, and there in
the basket sat a woman!
BAR ES, "And behold there was lifted up a talent of lead - the heaviest
Hebrew weight, elsewhere of gold or silver; the golden talent weighing, 1,300,000

60. grains; the silver, 660,000; here, being lead, it is obviously an undefined mass, though
circular , corresponding to the Ephah. The Ephah too was the largest Hebrew measure,
whose compass cannot now, with certainty, be ascertained . Both probably were, in the
vision, ideal. Theodoret: “Holy Scripture calleth the punishment of sin, lead, as being by
nature heavy. This the divine David teacheth us, “mine iniquities are gone over my head:
as an heavy burden, they are too heavy for me” Psa_38:4. The divine Zechariah seeth sin
under the image of a woman; for most evils are engendered by luxury. But he seeth the
punishment, like most heavy lead, lying upon the mouth of iniquity, according to a
Psalm, “all iniquity shall stop her mouth” Psa_107:42. Ambr. in Ps. 35. n. 9. Opp. i. 769:
“Iniquity, as with a talent of lead, weighs down the conscience.”
This is a woman - Literally, “one woman,” all sin being concentrated and
personified in one, as he goes on to speak of her as the, personified, wickedness. The
sitting may represent her abiding tranquil condition in her sins, according to the climax
in Psa_1:1-6, “and hath not sat in the seat of the scornful” Psa_1:1; and, “thou sittest and
speakest against thy brother” Psa_50:20; (Lap.), “not standing as by the way, but sitting,
as if of set purpose, of custom and habit.” “Whoso hath peace in sins is not far from
lying down in them, so that, oppressed by a spirit of slumber, he neither sees light, nor
feels any blow, but is kept down by the leaden talent of his obduracy.”
GILL, "And, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead,.... By the angel; since
he is afterwards said to cast it upon the mouth of the "ephah". A cicar, or talent of silver,
with the Jews, was equal to three thousand shekels, as may be gathered from Exo_38:24
and weighed a hundred and twenty five pounds (a); or, as others, a hundred and twenty
(b), and, according to the more exact account of Dr. Arbuthnot, a hundred and thirteen
pounds, ten ounces, one pennyweight, and ten and two seventh grains of our Troy
weight. A Babylonish talent, according to Aelianus (c), weighed seventy two Attic
pounds; and an Attic mina, or pound, weighed a hundred drachmas; so that it was of the
weight of seven thousand two hundred such drachmas. An Alexandrian talent was equal
to twelve thousand Attic drachmas; and these the same with a hundred and twenty five
Roman libras or pounds; which talent is supposed to be the same with that of Moses.
The Roman talent contained seventy two Italic minas, which were the same with the
Roman libras (d). But since the Hebrew word "cicar" signifies anything plain, and what
is extended like a cake, as Arias Montanus observes (e), it may here intend a plate of
lead, which was laid over the mouth of the "ephah", as a lid unto it; though indeed it is
afterwards called ‫עופרת‬ ‫,אבן‬ "a stone of lead", and so seems to design a weight.
And this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah; who, in Zec_5:8, is
called "wickedness"; and here represented by a "woman", because, say some, the woman
was first in the transgression; or rather because sin is flattering and deceitful, and draws
into the commission of it, and so to ruin: and this woman, wickedness, intends wicked
men; all the wicked among the Jews, and even all the wicked of the world; who sit in the
"ephah", very active and busy in filling up the measure of their sins, and where they sit
with great pleasure and delight; very openly and visibly declare their sin, as Sodom, and
hide it not; in a very proud and haughty manner, with great boldness and impudence,
and in great security, without any concern about a future state, promising themselves
impunity here and hereafter. This woman is a very lively emblem of the whore of Rome,
sitting as a queen upon many waters; ruling over kings and princes; living deliciously,
and in great ease and pleasure filling up the measure of her sins. Kimchi interprets this
woman of the ten tribes, who wickedly departed from God, and were as one kingdom.

61. JAMISO , "lifted up — The cover is lifted off the ephah to let the prophet see the
female personification of “wickedness” within, about to be removed from Judea. The
cover being “of lead,” implies that the “woman” cannot escape from the ponderous load
which presses her down.
talent — literally, “a round piece”: hence a talent, a weight of one hundred twenty-five
pounds troy.
woman — for comparison of “wickedness” to a woman, Pro_2:16; Pro_5:3, Pro_5:4.
In personifying abstract terms, the feminine is used, as the idea of giving birth to life is
associated with woman.
CALVI , " ow the Prophet says that wickedness, when first seen, was in mid air,
and in a measure; but at the same time he calls the measure the eye of the ungodly,
for though wickedness extends itself to all parts, yet God confines it within a hidden
measure; and this he designates by eyes, whereby he seems to allude to a former
prophecy, which we have explained. For he had said that there were seven eyes in
the stone of the high priest, because God would carry on by his providence the
building of the temple. So also he says, that God’s eyes are upon all the ungodly,
according to what is said in the book of Psalms —
“The eyes of the Lord are over the wicked, to destroy their memory from the earth.”
(Psalms 34:17.)
And this mode of speaking often occurs in Scripture. The meaning then is, that
though wickedness spreads and extends through the whole earth, it is yet in a
measure; but this measure is not always closed up. However this may be, still God
knows how to regulate all things, so that impiety shall not exceed its limits. And this
is most true, whatever view may be taken; for when enemies harass the church,
though they may be carried along in the air, that is, though God may not
immediately restrain their wrongs, they yet sit in a measure, and are ruled by the
eyes of God, so that they cannot move a finger, except so far as they are permitted.
Let us in a word know, that in a state of things wholly disordered, God watches, and
his eyes are vigilant, in order to put an end to injuries. The same also may be said
when God gives up to a reprobate mind those who deserve such a punishment; for
though he cast them away, and Satan takes possession of them, yet this remains true
— that they sit in a measure. They are not indeed shut in; but we ought not, as I
have said, to suppose that God is indifferent in heaven, or that sins prevail in the
world, as though he did not see them; for his connivance is not blindness. The eyes
of God then mark and observe whatever sins are done in the world.
COFFMA , "Verse 7
"(And, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead); and this is a woman sitting in
the midst of the ephah."
This verse brings out additional features of the vision: the heavy lead cover, being
lifted, and a woman seated on the inside! "An ephah basket is much too small for a

62. full-sized person; so the vision either has a very small woman or a woman-like
figure, that is, an idol."[20] Interpreters either enlarge the basket, as Hailey: "It was
larger than a bushel-basket ... the word was used only to designate the shape ... not
the size";[21] or reduce the figure of a woman as did Watts. Our own preference
here is the interpretation that makes "the woman" to be the figure of one of the
popular female goddesses of the day. Ishtar or Ashteroth could have been meant.
This certainly avoids what seems to us the error of making womanhood to be the
essence and personification of Sin. After all, it was to be "the Seed of Woman" who
would redeem all mankind. Additionally, it was precisely the worship of pagan idols
with their regiments of sacred prostitutes that had been the undoing of Israel in the
catastrophe that led to their captivity. We cannot resist the conviction that idolatry
is the thing meant by this woman in a basket.
"A talent of lead ..." ote that the basket was shut with this heavy lid. Gill says that
"A talent weighs approximately 118 pounds troy."[22] However, Deane affirmed
that the word here rendered "talent" is actually "a round," having reference to the
shape of the lid and not to its weight.[23]
TRAPP, "Verse 6
Zechariah 5:6 And I said, What [is] it? And he said, This [is] an ephah that goeth
forth. He said moreover, This [is] their resemblance through all the earth.
Ver. 6. And I said, What is it?] i.e. What meaneth it? for the vision is very hard and
mysterious lest (saith one) the plain denunciation of the second overthrow of temple
and state might discourage them too much to go forward in the present restoration
of both. Hugh Broughton, on Daniel 2:4, observeth that while the visions are
general, and cause the Jews no danger, so far Daniel writeth in the Syriac tongue,
general over the East. But when the oppressors be named, and the Jews plainly
described the people whom God defendeth, then the eighth chapter and all after he
writes in Hebrew (a tongue less known and studied), and hath commandment to
keep close the plain exposition Daniel 12:4. There is a great deal of wisdom required
of those that are intrusted with the dispensation of divine truths. Our Saviour spake
as the people could hear, and not as he could have spoken. See Hebrews 5:11-12.
This is an ephah that goeth forth] The ephah was the greatest and most common
measure among the Jews; and is therefore generally put for any measure
whatsoever, Deuteronomy 25:14. By false measures (one kind of theft) they had
sinned (whence the Chaldee here, Isti sunt populi qui aceipiebant, et dabant
mensura falsa, These are the people that bought and sold by false measures), by the
same, therefore, their punishment is set forth and signified: a piece of their
punishment it was that they were bounded and limited; that wickedness was
confined and kept within her ephah. The Vulgate translates it amphora, a pitcher;
which, when it is once filled with the bitter waters of wickedness, will soon sink to
the bottom. Sinners, as they are stinted, so, when they have filled up their measure,
they are sure to be punished; when they are ripe in the field God will come with his
sickle; when their grapes of Sodom are full ready he will cast them into the

63. winepress of his wrath, Revelation 14:19, Genesis 15:16, Matthew 23:32.
This is their resemblance through all the earth] Heb. their eye, their aspect, their
colour. This, that is, this ephah, is their resemblance; sc. that when they have filled
up their sins they shall have their fill of punishment. Or this, meaning some
apparition representing God’s providence showed by the angel to the prophet, is
their eye, that is, the eye of the three persons in Trinity, God’s universal providence,
which presideth over his judgments, Zechariah 3:9; Zechariah 4:10; Zechariah 9:1.
Or thus: This ephah or measure of their punishment, proportionate to their sin, in
killing Christ especially, Matthew 23:32, shall be their eye through all the earth, i.e.
shall be conspicuous and apparent to all sorts; so that all men shall hate them, and
hoot at them for a company of kill-Christs, shall look upon them as a people of
God’s curse. Thus the Chaldee here, Behold, they are made manifest before all the
inhabitants of the earth; for all men shall be witnesses of their horrible both sins
and plagues.
ELLICOTT, "(7, 8) Talent.—Better, disc. The construction of these verses is rather
difficult. They should be taken as the words of the angel-interpreter, and be
rendered: And behold (i.e., and you may see) a leaden disc being lifted up, and this
[which you now see on the removal of the disc] is a woman sitting in the ephah; this,
continued he, is wickedness. Observe the climax: first, representatives of the two
classes of sinners are spoken of; then they are heaped into an undistinguishable
mass, and afterwards they are spoken of as one woman, who impersonates
wickedness.
Cast it.—Better, her, the woman.
COKE, "Zechariah 5:7. And this is a woman, &c.— And this is one woman who
sitteth, &c. This woman denotes the wickedness, or the wicked one, as the angel
deciphers it in the next verse. As corrupt societies are expressed by harlots, and
women of lewd characters; so here the corrupt state of the Jews is figured by a
wicked woman.
PETT, "Zechariah 5:7-8
‘And behold there was lifted up a talent of lead, and this is a woman sitting in the
midst of the ephah. And he said, “This is wickedness.” And he thrust her down in
the midst of the ephah and he put the weight of lead on its mouth.’
The ‘talent of lead’ is a lid made of lead of that weight. When the lid is lifted up a
woman is found to be inside. The angel describes her as representing ‘wickedness’.
And he pushes her down to make sure she does not escape, and closes the lid firmly.
The heavy weight of the lid suggests that the woman is eager to break free and must
be firmly held. It possibly indicates that the power of God is keeping her in place.
‘This is wickedness.’ Women are often seen as representing evil, especially when
related to idolatry. We can compare the ‘scarlet woman’ in Revelation 17. This may

64. have been partly perhaps because of the failure of Eve (Genesis 3), partly because
they are seen as being a temptation to man, but far more because idolatry was
powerfully connected with goddesses and accompanying sexual depravity. A
connection may also be seen with the way in which Jezebel was infamous as
introducing the idolatrous worship of Baal Melkart to Israel. Goddesses were
typical of idolatrous religion and acted as a snare to men, for so much of idolatrous
religion was based on sex. This comes out in that Hebrew had no word for goddess.
The idea was repugnant to them.
The picture would seem to represent the fact that measurement is being made,
judgment is being carried out and the wickedness and idolatry thus discovered is
contained in the ephah. Idolatry was not strictly a problem with the returnees
themselves. But the inhabitants of the land partook in a syncretistic form of
Yahwism which included idolatry, into which some could easily be attracted, and as
Malachi will bring out a hundred years later there were women in the land who
worshipped foreign gods and were attractive to the returnees because they held land
rights. Thus it was necessary for YHWH to bring out that all who partake in such
must recognise that they are thereby renewing their connection with Babylon, and
might expect to be exiled there again.
Some, however, see the woman in the ephah as representing greed and a seeking
after wealth which represented the spirit of Babylon and caused them to break or
manipulate the covenant.
WHEDO , "Verse 7
7. While the interpreter was still speaking, the cover was lifted from the top of the
ephah.
A talent of lead — Literally, a circle; margin, “a round piece” (of lead). The ephah
is pictured as round. ow the prophet beholds the contents.
And this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah — If the first part of
Zechariah 5:7 is taken as a parenthetical clause (so R.V.), these words are a
continuation of Zechariah 5:6, dependent on “He said moreover.” If Zechariah 5:7
is taken by itself as describing the sight which met the prophet’s eyes, a better
rendering would be, “And, behold! a round piece of lead was lifted up; and (behold)
this! one (lone) woman sitting in the midst of the ephah”; one woman is in
apposition to this (G.-K., 136d, note). It says not “a woman,” but “one woman”; the
numeral is used to indicate that nothing else was in the ephah.
PULPIT, "Zechariah 5:7
There was lifted up a talent of lead. As the prophet gazed, the leaden cover of the
ephah was raised, so that the contents became visible. The word rendered "talent"
(kikkar) denotes a circle. It is used in Genesis 13:10, Genesis 13:12, for the tract of
country of which the Jordan was the centre, and in 1 Samuel 2:36 for a round loaf.
Here it means a disc or circular plate which formed the cover of the round shaped

65. ephah. In the next verse it is called, "the weight of lead." And this is a woman that
sitteth in the midst of the ephah; and there was a woman sitting, etc. When the
leaden lid was raised one woman (mulier una, γυνὴ µία) was seen in the measure.
She is called "one," as uniting and concentrating in her person all sinners and all
sins.
8 He said, “This is wickedness,” and he pushed
her back into the basket and pushed its lead cover
down on it.
BAR ES, "And cast her into the midst of the Ephah - As yet then the measure
was not full. Ribera: “She had the lower part within the Ephah, but the upper, especially
the head, without. Though the Jews had slain the prophets and done many grievous
things, the greatest sin of all remained to be done. But when they had crucified Christ
and persecuted the Apostles and the Gospel, the measure was full; she was wholly within
the Ephah, no part remained without, so that the measure was filled.”
And he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof - that is, doubtless of
the Ephah; as in Genesis, “a great stone was on the mouth of the well” Gen_29:2, so that
there should be no access to it.
GILL, "And he said, This is wickedness,.... A representation of wicked men, who
are wickedness itself, as their inward part is, Psa_5:9 and particularly of the wicked one,
the man of sin and son of perdition, the Roman antichrist and apocalyptic beast; who,
though he is called by this title, "his Holiness", his true and proper name is
"wickedness"; ο ανοµος, that wicked lawless one, 2Th_2:8 yea, wickedness itself, being
extremely wicked, a sink of sin and of all abominations, Rev_17:5.
And he cast it into the midst of the ephah; that is, wickedness; that it might be
kept within bounds, and not exceed its measure to be filled up: this seems to denote
some restraint on sinners, that they may not be able to go all the lengths they would; and
some rebuke upon them, that they might not lift up their heads with impunity; and some
check upon them, and their furious rage towards the people of God; and also the putting
of an utter end to sin and sinners, and particularly the followers of antichrist; see Psa_
104:35.
And he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof; either upon the mouth
of the woman, or of the ephah; and, be it which it will, it was done to keep the woman

66. within the ephah, and press her down there; and intends the judgments of God upon
sinners; and shows that there is no escaping divine vengeance; that it falls heavy where it
lights, and sinks to the lowest hell; and that it will continue, being laid on by the firm,
unchangeable, and irrevocable decree of God. Cocceius understands this of the Saracens
and Turks, and the barbarous nations, being cast into the Roman empire, to restrain the
antichristian tyranny; but it seems better to apply it to the utter destruction of antichrist,
signified by a millstone cast into the sea and sunk there, never to rise more; see Rev_
18:21 and with it compare Exo_15:10.
JAMISO , "wickedness — literally, “the wickedness”: implying wickedness in its
peculiar development. Compare “the man of sin,” 2Th_2:3.
cast it — that is, her, Wickedness, who had moved more freely while the heavy lid was
partially lifted off.
weight — literally, “stone,” that is, round mass.
CALVI , " ow the angel adds, that a thin piece of lead was cast over the mouth of
the measure, and that wickedness was cast into the measure. The expression, that
wickedness was thrown into the measure, may be explained in two ways — either
that God would not permit so much liberty to the devil to lead the Jews to sin as
before; for how comes it that men abandon themselves to every evil, except that God
forsakes them, and at the same time delivers them up to Satan, that he may exercise
his tyranny over them? or, that a bridle would be used to restrain foreign enemies,
that they might not in their wantonness oppress the miserable people, and exercise
extreme violence. God, then, intending to deliver them from their sins, or to check
wrongs, shuts up wickedness, as it were, in a measure; and then he adds a cover;
and it is said to have been a thin piece, or a weight of lead, because it was heavy; as
though the Prophet had said, that whenever it pleased God iniquity would be taken
captive, so that it could not go forth from its confinement or its prison. It afterwards
follows —
COFFMA , ""And he said, This is Wickedness: and he cast her down into the
midst of the ephah; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof."
This is about the only explanation that the angel gave of the vision, and any more
elaborate description of what was meant would seem to be precarious. That idolatry
was the thing primarily meant is reasonable:
If Zechariah actually had idolatry in mind, it is easy to explain why he represents it
as a woman. In so doing, he simply follows the practice of the older prophets, who
repeatedly denounce this offence under the figure of prostitution.[24]
The very title, "Wickedness" was also applied to the wicked queen who corrupted
Judah with idolatry (2 Chronicles 24:7).
TRAPP, "Verse 8
Zechariah 5:8 And he said, This [is] wickedness. And he cast it into the midst of the
ephah; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof.

67. Ver. 8. And he said, This is wickedness] viz. This woman, a figure of the whole sinful
nation of the Jews; as were Aholah and Aholibah, Ezekiel 23:36; Ezekiel 23:44, and
Babylon the Great, the mother of fornications and abominations, Revelation 17:5, to
whom I may add that grand-daughter of hers, Katherine de Medicis, Queen mother;
who by her wickedness wonderfully troubled all France for thirty years together.
And he cast it into the midst of the ephah] The angel, as an executioner of Divine
justice, throws her down who before sat perking and priding herself; and claps her
up close prisoner as it were in the ephah.
Casting the weight of lead into the mouth thereof] That is, of the ephah, or of the
woman, according to that, Psalms 107:42 "The righteous shall see it, and rejoice:
and all iniquity shall stop her mouth." Montanus, one of the Talmud, addeth, that
this woman is compelled to take this lead into her mouth; that molten lead was
poured down her throat, for a punishment of her frauds and thefts, Zechariah 5:3.
But the wicked shall not be so excused; for upon them God shall rain snares, fire,
brimstone, and a burning tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup, Psalms
11:6, and this is far worse than molten lead, or burning bell metal. Compare with
this text Jeremiah 51:64, Revelation 18:21; cf. Revelation 20:1. An angel, a strong
angel, for better assurance of Rome’s irreparable ruin, taketh a stone, a great stone,
which he throweth, and with force thrusteth into the bottom of the sea, whence it
cannot be buoyed up, whence nothing ordinarily is recovered, much less a millstone
thrust from such a hand with such a force. "What do ye imagine against the Lord?"
saith ahum; "he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second
time," ahum 1:9; that is, the wicked shall be totally and finally consumed at once;
neither will God make another doing of it. "I have overthrown some of you, as God
overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah," Amos 4:11 : wickedness is here crushed
together, as it were, in a narrow vessel, covered with lead, and carried into a strange
country.
CO STABLE, "The angel explained that the woman personified wickedness. Some
have interpreted the woman as covenant-breakers, a particular form of wickedness.
[ ote: E.g, McComiskey, p1101.] The angel picked her up, threw her down into the
middle of the basket, and shut the lead cover over her (cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:6-8).
Obviously some conflict was involved; "Wickedness" did not want to be restricted.
Perhaps Zechariah saw a woman, instead of a Prayer of Manasseh , because the
word "wickedness" in Hebrew is feminine. It was not uncommon to represent
wickedness as a woman (e.g, Proverbs 7; Revelation 17; et al.). Here the woman
represents the sum total of Israel"s sins, wickedness being the opposite of
righteousness (cf. Proverbs 13:6; Ezekiel 33:12). Another view is that she represents
Babylon ( Revelation 17-18), but this seems unlikely since she ends up in Babylon (
Zechariah 5:11).
COKE, "Zechariah 5:8. This is wickedness— The wicked one. That is, the wicked

68. one representing the wicked nation. Her being driven back within the ephah denotes
the check given to her farther progress; and the weight of lead, the weight of God's
judgments falling upon her.
And he cast it— And he drove her back, &c.
WHEDO , "Verses 8-10
8. The interpreter proceeds to explain the significance of the woman.
This is wickedness — The wickedness of the whole land (Zechariah 5:6) is
personified in the one woman. As the cover is lifted up she begins to rise, but the
angel throws her back and makes escape impossible by replacing the lid upon the
mouth, that is, the opening of the ephah.
Weight of lead — Literally, the stone of lead; synonymous with “round piece of
lead” in Zechariah 5:7.
Zechariah 5:9-10 describe the removal of the ephah from the land.
Then lifted I up mine eyes — This phrase introduces not a new vision, but a new
phase of the same vision. Looking up from the ephah, he beholds two new figures
appearing upon the scene.
Two women — These women have no special symbolical significance; they appear
only as the agents appointed to remove the ephah. Women are selected rather than
men because a woman is in the ephah, two women because one alone could not have
carried the burden.
Wings — To enable the women to move more quickly, they were supplied with
wings. The air would offer fewer obstacles than the land; besides, the wind of
heaven might assist creatures flying through the air in their movements.
Like the wings of a stork — The stork is introduced not because he is an unclean
bird (Leviticus 11:19), but on account of the great size of his wings.
The wind was in their wings — That they might proceed with greater swiftness.
Between the earth and the heaven — That is, in the air. Thus the women began their
journey.
As they move away the prophet inquires where they are going, to which the angel
makes answer. 11.
To build it [“her”] a house — The pronoun refers primarily to the ephah, but
includes the contents, the woman, for houses are built ordinarily for human beings.
The building of a house implies that the stay is to be permanent.

69. In the land of Shinar — Babylonia (Genesis 10:10; Genesis 11:2); the home of the
long-time enemy of the people of God, the land of exile. Sin, which had brought
serious disaster upon Judah, is to be removed to the land of the enemy, there to
cause distress and destruction. That the stay is to be permanent is further indicated
in the second half of the verse. R.V. is to be preferred: “and when it is prepared, she
shall be set there in her own place.”
When it is prepared (R.V.) — That is, the house.
She shall be set there (R.V.) — The woman (and the ephah).
In her own place (R.V.) — In the house erected for her use.
PULPIT, "Zechariah 5:8
This is wickedness. This woman is the personification of wickedness. It is very
common to find backsliding Israel represented as a faithless and adulterous woman
(comp. Isaiah 1:21; Jeremiah 2:20; Hosea 2:5; and the parable of the two women in
Ezekiel 23:1-49.). He cast it; her—the woman. As the woman rose, or tried to rise,
from the ephah, the angel flung her down into it. It is possible, as some
commentators suppose, that the ephah into which wickedness is thrust represents
the measure of iniquity which, being reached, constrains God to punish (see Genesis
15:16, where the dispossession of the Amorites is postponed till their iniquity is full).
The weight of lead; literally, as the LXX; the stone of lead; Vulgate, massam
plumbeam. This is the cover of the ephah, that which is called the "talent of lead" in
the preceding verse. This heavy cover the angel cast upon the mouth of the ephah, in
order to confine the woman therein. Dr. Wright and some other commentators,
referring the passage to theft and perjury alone, consider that the woman held in
her hand the leaden weight with which she weighed her gains, and was sitting in the
ephah which she used in her traffic; so that she represents dishonesty in the matter
of weight and measure. She is punished by the means of the instruments she had
used unrighteously; the weight is dashed upon her lying mouth, and the ephah, her
throne, is made the vehicle that carries her out of the land. But it seems a mistake to
confine the iniquity mentioned to the two special sins of theft and perjury; nor
would the talent and the ephah be natural instruments of stealing and false
swearing; and the point of the vision is not the punishment of wickedness, but its
expulsion from the land. It is true that the pronominal suffix in the mouth thereof is
feminine, and that the LXX. makes it refer to the woman, τὸ στόµα αὐτῆς. But it
may equally refer to ephah, which is also feminine.

70. 9 Then I looked up—and there before me were
two women, with the wind in their wings! They
had wings like those of a stork, and they lifted up
the basket between heaven and earth.
BAR ES, "There came out two women - It may be that there may be no symbol
herein, but that he names women because it was a woman who was so carried; yet their
wings were the wings of an unclean bird, strong, powerful, borne by a force not their
own; with their will, since they flew; beyond their will, since the wind was in their wings;
rapidly, inexorably, irresistibly, they flew and bore the Ephah between heaven and earth.
No earthly power could reach or rescue it. God would not. It may be that evil spirits are
symbolized, as being like to this personified human wickedness, such as snatch away the
souls of the damned, who, by serving them, have become as they.
CLARKE, "There came out two women - As the one woman represented the
impiety of the Jewish nation; so these two women who were to carry the ephah, in which
the woman Iniquity was shut up, under the weight of a talent of lead, may mean the
desperate Unbelief of the Jews in rejecting the Messiah; and that Impiety, or universal
corruption of manners, which was the consequence of their unbelief, and brought down
the wrath of God upon them. The strong wings, like those of a stork, may point out the
power and swiftness with which Judea was carried on to fill up the measure of her
iniquity, and to meet the punishment which she deserved.
Between the earth and the heaven - Sins against God and Man, sins which
heaven and earth contemplated with horror.
Or the Babylonians and Romans may be intended by the two women who carried the
Jewish ephah to its final punishment. The Chaldeans ruined Judea before the advent of
our Lord; the Romans, shortly after.
GILL, "Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked,.... This is not a new vision, but a
continuation of the former, as appears from the "ephah" seen in it:
and, behold, there came out two women; out of the same place the "ephah" did.
The Targum explains these "two women" by two provinces; and Kimchi interprets them
of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, who had been carried captive into Babylon;
and others of the two kings, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, who were the cause of the
captivity; but Jarchi understands by them the Babylonians and Chaldeans, two nations
as one, joined in Nebuchadnezzar's armies, which carried them captive: others think the
two reformers, Ezra and Nehemiah, are meant, who were instruments of purging the
Jews, returned from captivity, though but weak ones, and therefore are compared to

71. "women"; yet what they did they did swiftly, and therefore are said to have "wings", and
under the influence of the Spirit of God; hence the "wind", or "spirit" (f), is said to be in
their wings; and they acted from a tender regard to the glory of God and the good of
their country; and therefore their wings were like the "wings of a stork"; a bird of
passage, as appears from Jer_8:7 and so a fit emblem to be used in the transportation of
the "ephah"; of whom Pliny (g) says, from whence they come, and whither they betake
themselves, is yet unknown; and adds, there is no doubt that they come from afar; as it is
plain they must, if that relation be true, which seems to have good authority, that one of
these creatures, upon its return to Germany, brought a green root of ginger with it;
which must come from the eastern part of the world; from Arabia, or Ethiopia, or the
East Indies, where it grows (h): and as it is a bird that takes such long flights, it must
have wings fitted for such a purpose; and which are taken notice of in Job_39:13 to
which the wings and feather of the ostrich are compared; for so Bochart (i) there renders
the word, "the wing of the ostriches rejoices, truly the wing" as of "a stork, and the
feather"; or, as others, "who gave wings to the stork and ostrich?" both remarkable for
their wings: and Vatablus renders the word here an "ostrich"; which, according to Pliny
(k), is the largest of birds, and almost as big as a beast. In Ethiopia and Africa they are
taller than a horse and his rider, and exceed the horse in swiftness; and their wings seem
to be given them to help them in running; but which are not sufficient to lift them much
above the earth, and so can not be meant here; but rather the stork, whose wings are
black and white; and when they fly, they stretch out their necks forwards, and their feet
backwards, and with these direct their course; when a tempest rises, standing on both
feet, they spread their wings, lay their bill upon their breast, and turn their face that way
the storm comes (l). The Targum renders it an eagle, which is the swiftest of birds, and
whose wings are very strong to bear anything upon them, as they do their young, to
which the allusion is, Deu_32:11 and so, if meant here, to lift up and bear away the
ephah between the earth and the heaven; but the word is never used of that bird. The
Harpies or Furies, with the Heathens, are represented, as women having wings (m) as
these women are said to have; but these are very different women from them. Though
some think the Romans, under Vespasian and Titus, are intended; but it may be that the
two, perfections of God, his power and justice, in punishing men for their sins, are
meant, particularly in the last times, and at the day of judgment. The power of God will
be seen in raising the dead; in bringing all to judgment; in separating the wicked from
the righteous, and in the execution of the sentence denounced on them: and the justice
of God will be very conspicuous in the judgment and destruction of them.
And the wind was in their wings; they had wings, as denoting swiftness, as angels
are said to have; hence Maimonides, as Kimchi observes, thought that angels are here
meant; but this denotes, that though God is longsuffering, and may seem to defer
judgment, which is sometimes a stumbling to the righteous, and a hardening to the
wicked; yet, as this is only for the salvation of his elect, so when once the time is up, and
the commission given forth, power and justice will speedily execute the sentence: and
the "wind" being in their wings shows the greater swiftness and speed in the dispatch of
business, and the great strength and force with which they performed it:
for they had wings like the wings of a stork; which, being a creature kind and
tender, show that there is no cruelty in the displays of the power and justice of God in
punishing sinners:
and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven; which denotes
the visibility of the whole measure of the sins of wicked men; they will all be made

72. manifest, and brought into judgment: and also the visibility of their punishment; they
will go into everlasting punishment, in the sight of angels and men; and which will be the
case of the antichristian beast, Rev_17:8.
JAMISO , "The agents to carry away the “woman” are, consistently with the image,
“women.” God makes the wicked themselves the agents of punishing and removing
wickedness. “Two” are employed, as one is not enough to carry such a load [Maurer]. Or,
the Assyrians and Babylonians, who carried away idolatry in the persons, respectively, of
Israel and Judah [Henderson]. As two “anointed ones” (Zec_4:14) stand by the Lord as
His ministers, so two winged women execute His purpose here in removing the
embodiment of “wickedness”: answering to the “mystery of iniquity” (the Septuagint
here in Zechariah uses the same words as Paul and “the man of sin,” whom the Lord
shall destroy with the spirit of His mouth and the brightness of His coming, 2Th_2:3,
2Th_2:7, 2Th_2:8). Their “wings” express velocity. The “stork” has long and wide wings,
for which reason it is specified; also it is a migratory bird. The “wind” helps the rapid
motion of the wings. The being “lifted up between heaven and earth” implies open
execution of the judgment before the eyes of all. As the “woman” here is removed to
Babylon as her own dwelling, so the woman in the Apocalypse of St. John is Babylon
(Rev_17:3-5).
K&D 9-11, "Zec_5:9. “And I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold there came forth
two women, and wind in their wings, and they had wings like a stork's wings; and they
carried the ephah between earth and heaven. Zec_5:10. And I said to the angel that
talked with me, Whither are these taking the ephah? Zec_5:11. And he said to me, To
build it a dwelling in the land of Shinar: and it will be placed and set up there upon its
stand.” The meaning of this new scene may easily be discovered. The ephah with the
woman in it is carried away between earth and heaven, i.e., through the air. Women
carry it because there is a woman inside; and two women, because two persons are
required to carry so large and heavy a measure, that they may lay hold of it on both sides
(‫ה‬ָ‫נ‬ ֶ ִ with the ‫א‬ dropped; cf. Ges. §74, Anm. 4). These women have wings, because it
passes through the air; and a stork's wings, because these birds have broad pinions, and
not because the stork is a bird of passage or an unclean bird. The wings are filled with
wind, that they may be able to carry their burden with greater velocity through the air.
The women denote the instruments or powers employed by God to carry away the
sinners out of His congregation, without any special allusion to this or the other
historical nation. This is all that we have to seek for in these features, which only serve to
give distinctness to the picture. But the statement in Zec_5:11 is significant: “to build it a
house in the land of Shinar.” The pronoun ‫ה‬ ָ‫ל‬ with the suffix softened instead of ָ , as in
Exo_9:18; Lev_13:4 (cf. Ewald, §247, d), refers grammatically to ‫ה‬ ָ‫יפ‬ ֵ‫א‬ ָ‫;ה‬ but so far as the
sense is concerned, it refers to the woman sitting in the ephah, since a house is not built
for a measure, but only for men to dwell in. This also applies to the feminine form ‫ה‬ ָ‫תח‬ִ ֻ‫,ה‬
and to the suffix in ָ‫ת‬ָ‫נ‬ ֻ‫כ‬ ְ‫.מ‬ The building of a house indicates that the woman is to dwell
there permanently, as is still more clearly expressed in the second hemistich. ‫ן‬ ַ‫הוּכ‬ refers
to ‫ת‬ִ‫י‬ ַ , and is not to be taken hypothetically, in the sense of “as soon as the house shall
be restored,” but is a perfect with Vav consec.; and hūkhan, the hophal of kūn, is not to be

73. taken in the sense of restoring, but, in correspondence with me
khunâh, in the sense of
establishing or building on firm foundations. Me
khunâh: the firmly established house. In
this the woman of sin is brought to rest. The land in which the woman of sin carried
away out of the holy land is permanently to dwell, is the land of Shinar. This name is not
to be identified with Babel, so as to support the conclusion that it refers to a fresh
removal of the people of Israel into exile; but according to Gen_10:10 and Gen_11:2,
Shinar is the land in which Nimrod founded the first empire, and where the human race
built the tower of Babel which was to reach to the sky. The name is not to be taken
geographically here as an epithet applied to Mesopotamia, but is a notional or real
definition, which affirms that the ungodliness carried away out of the sphere of the
people of God will have its permanent settlement in the sphere of the imperial power
that is hostile to God. The double vision of this chapter, therefore, shows the separation
of the wicked from the congregation of the Lord, and their banishment into and
concentration within the ungodly kingdom of the world. This distinction and separation
commenced with the coming of the Messiah, and runs through all the ages of the spread
and development of the Christian church, until at the time of the end they will come
more and more into outward manifestation; and the evil, having been sifted out by the
judicial power of God and His Spirit, will form itself into a Babel of the last days, as
Ezekiel 38 and 39 clearly show, and attempt a last struggle with the kingdom of God, in
which it will be overcome and destroyed by the last judgment.
CALVI , "The Prophet says here that such would be the change of things, that God
would in turn afflict the Chaldeans, who had so cruelly treated the chosen people.
And this is the reason why I think that iniquity is to be taken for the violent
injustice and plunder which heathen enemies had exercised towards the Jews. For
when he says that a house would be for iniquity in the land of Shinar, it is as though
he had said, “as Judea has been for a long time plundered by enemies, and has been
exposed to their outrages, so the Chaldeans in their turn shall be punished, not once,
nor for a short time, but perpetually; for God will fix a habitation for wickedness in
their land.” We hence see the design of the vision, that is, that when God had mercy
on his Church its enemies would have to render an account, and that they would not
escape God’s hand, though he had employed them to chastise his people.
He says then, that wickedness was taken away, that a house might be made for it,
that is, that it might have a fixed and permanent dwelling in the land of Shinar,
which means among the Chaldeans, who had been inveterate enemies to the Jews;
and as Babylon was the metropolis of that empire, he includes under it all the
ungodly who opposed or persecuted the children of God. Why God represents the
measure as carried away by women rather than by men does not appear to me,
except it was that the Jews might know that there was no need of any warlike
preparations, but that their strongest enemies could be laid prostrate by weak and
feeble instruments; and thus under the form of weakness his own power would be
made evident. The Prophet saw women with wings, because sudden would be the
change, so that in one day, as we shall presently see, wickedness was taken away. By
the wings of a stork either celerity or strength is indicated. This is the sum of the
whole. (60)

74. This seems to be the most satisfactory view; and I would adopt the reading of the
Septuagint and the Syriac, taking [ ‫עונם‬ ] to be [ ‫עונם‬ ], not “their eye,” or, “their
appearance,” but “their iniquity,” and I would render verse 8 somewhat different
from others, as having been spoken by the angelwhile he was casting the woman into
the ephah. I give the following version of the sixth, seventh, and eighth verses,—
6.And I said, “What is it?” And he said, “This is an ephah that is going forth:” he
said also, “That (pointing to a woman)
7.is their iniquity through the whole land. And, behold, a talent of lead was lifted
up, and a woman was sitting in the midst of the ephah: and he said, “This is the
wicked one,” when he cast her into the midst of the ephah, and cast the leaden
weight on its mouth.
“What is it?” signifies here, What does it mean? for the Prophet of course knew it to
be an ephah. [ ‫זאת‬ ] repeated is to be rendered “this” and “that.” See 1 Kings 3:23.
The “two women” who carried away the ephah were probably, as ewcome
observes, “mere agents in the symbolic vision,” not designed to set forth anything in
particular; but Grotius and Henderson think that they designated the Assyrian and
the Babylonian powers, through whom idolatry had been removed from the land of
Canaan.—Ed.
COFFMA , "Verse 9
"Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold there came forth two women; now
they had wings like the wings of a stork; and they lifted up the ephah between earth
and heaven."
The purpose of the appearance of these two women was that of removing
"Wickedness" to Babylon (the land of Shinar). Here again we are confronted with
the most radically different interpretations of who are represented by these women,
and of their character, whether evil or righteous. "Kohler finds in them the
messengers of Satan, and eumann the angels of Yahweh."[25] Jamieson also
understood the women to be "ministers of God to execute his judgments."[26]
Without attempting to decide a question which is ably supported by many able
scholars on both sides, it does seem incongruous that "God's ministers" should be
represented here as borne by the wings of a stork. "Their wings were the wings of
an unclean bird. . it may be that evil spirits are symbolized."[27]
What is clearly in focus here is the removal of Wickedness from the land of God's
people to Babylon, the place of their previous captivity. Significantly, Israel never
more fell into the worship of idols after their captivity. Watts gave as a definite
meaning of the vision that, "Idolatry will have no place for the people of God in the
new era."[28] This certainly appears to be correct; not only was it proved to be true
in the case of the Old Israel; but in the times of the Messiah, which are never out of
sight in any of these visions, idolatry has never found a place; nor has the departure
of a large segment of Christianity from this principle negated the general truth that

75. Christians do not worship idols.
TRAPP, "Verse 9
Zechariah 5:9 Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out
two women, and the wind [was] in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of
a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven.
Ver. 9. Behold, there came out two women] Winged women, and carried through the
air with a pleasant wind, to note their ready and speedy obedience, prompt and
present. Women they are said to be, to keep proportion with the present vision; lest
the meeting and mixing together of men and women in the same matter might
minister occasion to some impure surmisings. But that they were men, and not
women, that are here meant is agreed upon by all. These were Ezra and ehemiah
(saith Willet on Leviticus 11:1-47., after Junius and Piscator on the text), those great
reformers of the Jewish Church. But this stands not with the last verse. I rather
subscribe to those that expound the text of the Romans, who with great celerity and
violence destroyed the Jews’ state; and so, that which they feared befell them, John
11:48. The Romans, said they, shall come to take away both our place and our
nation; and within a few years it proved accordingly; as if God had taken them at
their word, as he did those murmuring miscreants, umbers 14:28 "As truly as I
live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do unto you." Hereunto
the Chaldee paraphrast consenteth, when by these two women thus described he
understandeth, populos leves et expeditos, such agents and instruments as God
would employ in the speedy execution of his wrath upon the Jewish nation; such as
were Titus, Vespasian, and Aelius Adrian. Diodati maketh these two women a figure
of God, two properties, namely, mercy towards his elect, and justice towards his
enemies, wherewith he transports upon these last the judgments by which he had
punished his own people; which is done with admirable celerity. Thus he. Danaeus
makes those two women to be the anger and justice of God, which do always follow
and wait upon one another, and take vengeance on men’s wickedness. Iudicium sit
penes lectorem.
And the wind was in their wings] A masculine affix referred to a feminine noun: to
intimate that these women were indeed types of men, saith Mr Pemble. The Romans
were men every inch of them, as the proverb is; and therefore of cowards they were
wont to say that they had nothing Roman in them; and of Brutus, that he was the
last of the Romans.
And they lift up the ephah between the earth and the heaven] This betokeneth a
deportation and dissection of the Jewish nation; being tossed as a tennis ball into all
nations, and scattered into the four winds, as Jeremiah 49:36. Rupertus hence
concludeth them rejected of both earth and heaven. Out of the earth they are as it
were banished, by a common consent of nations; and heaven admitteth them not, as
those that please not God, and are contrary to all men, 1 Thessalonians 2:15. And as
their guide Judas, when they took Jesus, was hanged between heaven and earth,

76. being coelo terraeque perosus; so fares it with that wretched people, and will do till
God shall call them a people which were not a people, and her beloved which was
not beloved, Romans 9:25.
CO STABLE, "The prophet next saw two other women flying through the air with
stork wings. Perhaps they were women and not men because of the motherly
attention they brought to their task. [ ote: Merrill, p175.] Storks are strong,
motherly birds that are capable of carrying loads a long distance in flight. They
were common in Palestine in the spring months when they migrated to Europe (
Jeremiah 8:7). [ ote: Smith, p211.] The word "stork" (Heb. sida) means "faithful
one." These women would faithfully carry the ephah and its contents to God"s
appointed destination. Some believe they represent agents of evil, perhaps demonic
forces. [ ote: E.g, Unger, p98.] If they were that, however, would they not try to
help Wickedness escape? Storks were unclean birds for the Israelites ( Leviticus
11:19; Deuteronomy 14:18), so these stork-like women were appropriate carriers of
the contaminated basket. They lifted up the ephah into the air flying off from earth
to heaven with the divine assistance of the wind (Spirit, Heb. ruah).
"The removal of Wickedness, like the removal of Joshua"s filthy garments (
Zechariah 3:4), was an act of free grace on the part of the covenant-keeping (hasid)
God." [ ote: Baldwin, p129.]
ELLICOTT, "(9) Behold . . .—Here commences the third scene of the vision. We
need not enter into the minute details of the verse, as they are, probably, introduced
merely to give greater distinctness to the picture. (Comp. ote on Zechariah 1:8.)
The wings of the woman seem, however, to be represented as filled with the wind to
enable them to carry their burden with greater ease and velocity through the air.
The prophet, perhaps, borrowed his imagery from some of the grotesque figures he
had seen in Babylon.
BE SO , "Verses 9-11
Zechariah 5:9-11. Then lifted I up mine eyes, &c. — Great difficulties attend the
interpretation of this part of the vision, and commentators are much divided upon
it. According to Calmet, the woman enclosed in the ephah denoted the iniquity of
Babylon; the mass of lead which fell down upon her was the vengeance of the Lord;
and the two women who lifted her up into the air were the Medes and Persians, who
destroyed the empire of Babylon. Houbigant, however, observes, “that nobody has
yet found out, nor ever will find out, why these women should carry the ephah into
the land of Shinar, or of the Chaldees, if Shinar be understood literally, and not
metaphorically. The Jews were not again carried captive into the land of the
Chaldeans, after the rebuilding of the temple by Zerubbabel; nor can the Chaldeans
be understood by the ephah which is carried into the land of Shinar with the
woman, who abused it to fraudulent purposes; for the ephah is a Hebrew measure;
and this woman, who is kept shut up in the ephah, is carried into a land not her
own. Shinar will be more properly understood, as spoken metaphorically of the last
captivity, under which the Jews now live; being, in the several kingdoms of the
world, in the same state of servitude as they lived in under, the kings of the

77. Chaldeans; having their dwelling everywhere, with the deceitful ephah, to denote
their usury and fraud. There is no necessity to be anxious about explaining why the
ephah was to be carried by two women, and not by one only, or more, for the empire
of the Greeks and Romans is not denoted hereby, but two women pertain only to the
parable; as it might have seemed too much for one to have carried into a distant
country an ephah burdened with lead, and with a woman shut up in it.” Archbishop
ewcome understands the words in this sense: considering the two women as “mere
agents in the symbolical vision;” the meaning of which, he says, seems to be, “that
the Babylonish captivity had happened on account of the wickedness committed by
the Jews; and that a like dispersion would befall them, if they relapsed into like
crimes. Thus the whole chapter would be an awful admonition that multiplied
curses, and particularly that dispersion and captivity, would be the punishment of
national guilt.” Blayney interprets the vision in a similar way. “These, [namely, two
women,] and the other circumstances mentioned Zechariah 5:9, seem to indicate
nothing more particular, than that Providence would make use of quick and forcible
means to effect its purpose.” Hence these women are said to have had wings like the
wings of a stork; the stork, like other birds of passage, being provided with strong
wings. Though the land of Shinar signifies, as he observes, the land of Babylon, (see
Genesis 11:2,) yet “this does not necessarily imply that Babylon would be the scene
of the next captivity; but only that the people, in case of fresh transgression, might
expect another severe captivity, like that in Babylon, but of still longer duration. In
this manner Egypt is used proverbially for any grievous calamity, inflicted by the
judgment of God: see Deuteronomy 28:68; Hosea 8:13; Hosea 9:3.”
COKE, "Verse 9
Zechariah 5:9. Then lifted I up mine eyes— There are great difficulties in
explaining this part of the vision, and commentators are very much divided upon it.
Calmet says, that the woman inclosed in the ephah denoted the iniquity of Babylon;
the mass of lead which fell down upon her was the vengeance of the Lord; and the
two women who lifted her up in the air, were the Medes and Persians, who
destroyed the empire of Babylon. Houbigant however observes, that nobody has yet
found out, nor ever will find out, why these women should carry the ephah into the
land of Shinar, or of the Chaldees, if Shinar be understood literally, and not
metaphorically. The Jews were not again carried captive into the land of the
Chaldeans, after the rebuilding of the temple by Zerubbabel; nor can the Chaldeans
be understood by the ephah which is carried into the land of Shinar with the woman
who abused it to fraudulent purposes; for the ephah is a Hebrew measure; and this
woman who is kept shut up in the ephah, is carried into a land not her own. Shinar
will be more properly understood as spoken metaphorically of the last captivity,
under which the Jews now live; being in some sense, in the several kingdoms of the
world, in the same state of servitude as they lived in under the kings of the
Chaldeans; having their dwelling every where. There is no necessity to be anxious
about explaining why the ephah is to be carried by two women, and not by one only,
or more, for the empire of the Greeks and Romans is not denoted hereby; but two
women pertain only to the parable; as it might have seemed too much for one to
have carried into a distant country an ephah burdened with lead, and with a woman
shut up in it.

78. PETT, "Zechariah 5:9-11
‘Then I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold there came forth two women, and the
wind was in their wings. ow they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they
lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven. Then I said to the angel who
talked with me, “Where are they bearing the ephah?” And he said to me, “To build
her a house in the land of Shinar. And when it is prepared she will be set there in
her own place”.’
The idea behind this picture would seem to be of the removal of idolatry from the
land. Stealing and swearing falsely have already been dealt with. ow idolatry, and
all connected with it, is also dealt with, including divination and the use of magical
objects (Zechariah 10:2). It must be removed from the land and returned where it
belongs, to Babylon. Babylon is always seen as the epitome of idolatry, the
representation of all that is bad.
The two women. The description of them as women together with the woman in the
ephah prevents us from seeing these as angels. They would appear to be all part of
the same idea, that of idolatry, or at least of uncleanness. The stork was an unclean
bird - Leviticus 11:19; Deuteronomy 14:18. Thus the emphasis may have been of
uncleanness. Women necessarily spent much time as unclean due to menstruation.
Some have seen in this a deliberate caricature of Ezekiel 1. Just as YHWH rode in
majesty on the Cherubim to the River Chebar, so now this imprisoned goddess is
borne to Babylon.
‘To build her a house.’ That is, a Temple. There she is to be installed well away
from the land of Judah. She is now in ‘her own place’. There is no place for her in
the land where the Temple of YHWH is being built. This may indicate that the
woman may have the Queen of Heaven in mind who was falsely worshipped before
the Exile (Jeremiah 44:17-19)
‘The land of Shinar.’ Babylon - see Genesis 10:10; Genesis 11:2; Isaiah 11:11;
Daniel 1:2.
The idea is that any connections with idolatry and its practises are to be removed
once and for all so that when the Jerusalem Temple is built it may be completely
free from the idolatrous connections which had destroyed the old Temple. The
people of God and idolatry have nothing to do with each other. There must be no
compromise. All must be tested out and any idolatrous connections expelled.
It must be recognised that idolatry is not just seen as a separate sin from others.
Idolatry is abhorred by God because it demonstrates that man’s heart is firmly fixed
on the flesh rather than the Spirit. Thus it is tied up with sexual depravity, carnal
longings, seeking the future through occult practises, love of the world, its pleasures
and its wealth, and commitment to what is ‘natural’ rather than spiritual. The
natural man does not discern the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness

79. to him (1 Corinthians 2:14). See Paul’s vivid description of idolatry and its results in
Romans 1:18-32. Many modern persons would not look on themselves as idolaters,
but their behaviour proves that they worship ‘Mammon’ or ‘nature’ with their offer
of things of the flesh and nature’s invasion into the occult.
PULPIT, "Zechariah 5:9
Then lifted I up mine eyes. This is the conclusion of the vision. And looked; and saw.
There came out (forth) two women. These two women who now come in sight have
been supposed to represent the Assyrians and Babylonians, who wore the agents in
the deportation of Israel; or else are considered abettors of the woman in the ephah,
who for a time save her from destruction. This latter supposition proceeds on the
erroneous idea that wickedness is herein rescued from punishment, whereas the
notion that underlies the whole vision is that the Holy Land is purged of wickedness.
That the two nations hostile to Israel are represented is an untenable suggestion; for
why should they carry off iniquity from Jerusalem and fix it in their own land?
Probably by the two women carrying away the evil woman is signified (if the details
are capable of explanation) that iniquity brings with it its own destruction and
works out its own removal. The wind was in their wings. They were borne along so
quickly that they seemed to be carried by the wind; or the wind helped their flight.
A stork; Septuagint, ἔποπος, "the hoopoe;" Vulgate, milvi. The Authorized Version
is certainly correct. The stork is common enough in Palestine, and is reckoned
among unclean birds in the Pentateuch (Le 11:19; Deuteronomy 14:18), for which
cause some have thought it is here introduced as bearing the sin laden ephah. But its
introduction more probably has reference to its migratory habits, the power and
rapidity of its flight, and, as some think, to its skill in constructing its nest.
10 “Where are they taking the basket?” I asked
the angel who was speaking to me.
GILL, "Then said I to the angel that talked with me;.... This the prophet said
after he had seen the "ephah" come forth; the woman, wickedness, cast into it, and the
talent of lead upon her; and the two women lifting up the ephah between heaven and
earth:

80. Whither do these bear the ephah? he neither asks what the ephah signified, nor
who were the women that bore it, but only whither they bore it.
HE RY, "He sees the ephah, with the woman thus pressed to death in it, carried
away into some far country. 1. The instruments employed to do it were two women, who
had wings like those of a stork, large and strong, and, to make them fly the more swiftly,
they had the wind in their wings, denoting the great violence and expedition with which
the Romans destroyed the Jewish nation. God has not only winged messengers in
heaven, but he can, when he pleases, give wings to those also whom he employs in this
lower world; and, when he does so, he forwards them with the wind in their wings; his
providence carries them on with a favourable gale. 2. They bore it up in the air, denoting
the terrors which pursued the wicked Jews, and their being a public example of God's
vengeance to the world. They lifted it up between the earth and the heaven, as unworthy
of either and abandoned by both; for the Jews, when this was fulfilled, pleased not God
and were contrary to all men, 1Th_2:15. This is wickedness, and this comes of it; heaven
thrust out wicked angels, and earth spewed out wicked Canaanites. 3. When the prophet
enquired whither they carried their prisoner whom they had now in execution (Zec_
5:10) he was told that they designed to build it a house in the land of Shinar. This
intimates that the punishment of the Jews should be a final dispersion; they should be
hurried out of their own country, as the chaff which the wind drives away, and should
be forced to dwell in far countries, particularly in the country of Babylon, whither many
of the scattered Jews went after the destruction of their country by the Romans, as they
did also to other countries, especially in the Levant parts, not to sojourn, as in their
former captivity, for seventy years, but to be nailed down for perpetuity. There the ephah
shall be established, and set upon her own base. This intimates, (1.) That their calamity
shall continue from generation to generation, and that they shall be so dispersed that
they shall never unite or incorporate again; they shall settle in a perpetual unsettlement,
and Cain's doom shall be theirs, to dwell in the land of shaking. (2.) That their iniquity
shall continue too, and their hearts shall be hardened in it. Blindness has happened unto
Israel, and they are settled upon the lees of their own unbelief; their wickedness is
established upon its own basis. God has given them a spirit of slumber (Rom_11:8), lest
at any time they should convert, and be healed.
COFFMA , "Verse 10
"Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah?
And he said unto me, To build her a house in the land of Shinar: and when it is
prepared, she shall be set there in her own place."
The destination of the ephah borne on the wings of the two women is the principal
revelation of these verses. It is "the land of Shinar." "Shinar is synonymous with
`Babylon' (Genesis 10:10). The term `Shinar' is used for obvious reasons. Babylon
was now (in Zechariah's day) in the hands of Darius, ruler of the Medo-Persian
empire";[29] and, to have used the word Babylon, would have been to incur
unnecessarily the wrath of the very ruler upon whose good will the rebuilding of
Jerusalem was dependent.
Besides that, "Babylon" in this passage means far more than erie wicked city. What
is seen here is the enthronement of Wickedness in the great world power that
continuously throughout history has arrayed itself against God. The first attempt to

81. array a world-empire against God was at Shinar; and "The use of that word here is
an apt symbol of the antitheist and anti-Christian world."[30] Babylon in all the
ages to come would stand for enthroned and worshipped Wickedness as opposed to
God, as evidenced in Revelation 17, etc. The Messianic glimpse ere is undeniable, for
there comes into view one of the earliest representatives of "Mystery Babylon the
Great," the fall of which is depicted in Revelation and which occurs at the end of
this dispensation of God's grace.
It seems incredible that any commentator would take the position that Zechariah's
vision here was "prejudiced" and designed to "blacken an enemy"; but that is
exactly the position of some. Speers attributed such motives to our prophet, stating
that, "What we abominate, we say our enemies worship."[31]
"To build her a house ..." Scholars agree that "house" here means temple, upon
which Wickedness will be enthroned. Thus, our vision dramatically emphasizes the
vast gulf that separates God's people from the unregenerated peoples of mankind.
An apostle warned us that "the god of this world" hath blinded the minds of the
unbelieving (2 Corinthians 4:4); and the concurrent testimony of all ages confirms it
as a fact. Zechariah's vision here of Wickedness being enthroned in Babylon is in
perfect harmony with what Paul said, and did not originate in any unwholesome
attitude on the part of the prophet. After all, the vision was not his, it was what God
showed him. "In this vision, Shinar is not to be thought of as a geographical
country, but as a symbol of Satan's world government."[32] "Doubtless too there is
a warning here conveyed to those Jews who still lingered in Babylon."[33] They
were living in a land devoted to the worship of evil, and all who remained there were
in mortal danger of being contaminated by a poison which would be fatal. In line
with this same thought, God's people of all ages are warned, "Come out of her, my
people, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her
plagues" (Revelation 18:4).
PROBABLE MEA I G OF THE VISIO S
1. The flying roll. This means that all of God's blessings are contingent upon
honoring his sacred law. Violators will be punished.
2. The ephah borne to Babylon with the image of a woman in it means that
Wickedness is enthroned in the evil city, and that God's people should leave the
place. The spiritual application is that God's people should avoid all unspiritual
environments that are destructive of faith. God's people totally reject idolatry.
TRAPP, "Verse 10
Zechariah 5:10 Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear
the ephah?
Ver. 10. Whither do these bear the ephah?] That is, saith Ribera, Quamdiu
duratura est populi huius impietas? How long shall this people’s wickedness last?

82. like as Isaiah 6:10-11, when the prophet had heard, "make the heart of this people
fat, and shut their eyes," &c., he cries out, "How long, Lord?" the answer
whereunto is the same in effect with this of the angel; until the cities be wasted
without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate;
and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the
midst of the land.
CO STABLE, "Verse 10-11
When Zechariah asked the angel where the two flying women were taking the
basket, his interpreter responded that they were taking the woman to the land of
Shinar (Babylonia, cf. Genesis 10:10; Genesis 11:2; Genesis 14:1; Genesis 14:9).
"Shinar, besides taking the theme of Babylon as antagonist back to the very
beginning ( Genesis 10:10), creating thereby a kind of "historical inclusio," lends a
more trans-historical sense to the message." [ ote: Merrill, p178. Cf. Revelation
14:8; 17:1 , 5 , 18; 18:8 , 10 , 19 , 21.]
Leupold took Shinar as representing the world in contrast to the church. [ ote:
Leupold, p108.] These two women with storks" wings were God"s agents carrying
out His will (cf. Psalm 103:11-12; Jeremiah 32:39-40; Ezekiel 36:25). At the
appointed time the woman Wickedness would set atop a pedestal as an object of
worship, an idol (cf. Revelation 17-18).
"Thus where Judah had been exiled was a fitting place for wickedness to be
worshipped, but not in the land where God had placed his name. The idolatry of
Babylon must once and for all be separated from the worship of the God of Israel."
[ ote: David J. Ellis, " Zechariah ," in The ew Layman"s Bible Commentary,
p1034.]
"We understand the passage to speak of the heaping up of the full measure of
Israel"s sins prior to the time of God"s separation of the wicked from the midst of
the righteous remnant of the last days." [ ote: Feinberg, God Remembers, p89.]
"The two cleansing acts of this chapter are complementary, like the two goats on the
Day of Atonement, Leviticus 16 , of which the first must give its blood as an
expiation before the Lord, while the second carries away the guilt of the people, and
the impurity springing from it, to the region of the impure desert-demon. The
cleansing judgment, despite the terror, is a benefit to the land, which is thus purified
and fitted to receive the blessing pictured in the former visions." [ ote: C. von
Orelli, The Twelve Minor Prophets, p335.]
11 He replied, “To the country of Babylonia[c] to

83. build a house for it. When the house is ready, the
basket will be set there in its place.”
BAR ES, "To build it an house in the land of Shinar - The name of Shinar,
though strictly Babylonia, carries back to an older power than the world-empire of
Babylon; which now too was destroyed. “In the land of Shinar” Gen_11:2 was that first
attempt to array a world-empire against God, ere mankind was ye dispersed. And so it is
the apter symbol of the antitheist or anti-Christian world, which by violence, art,
falsehood, sophistry, wars against the truth. To this great world-empire it was to be
removed; yet to live there, no longer cramped and confined as within an Ephah, but in
pomp and splendor. A house or temple was to be built for it, for its honor and glory; as
Dagon 1Sa_5:2-5 or Ashtaroth 1Sa_31:10, or Baal 2Ki_10:23 had their houses or
temples, a great idol temple, in which the god of this world should be worshiped.
And it - - “The house,” “shall be established” firmly on its base, like the house of God,
and it, (wickedness) shall be tranquilly rested on its base, as an idol in its temple, until
the end come. In the end, the belief of those of old was, that the Jews would have great
share in the antagonism to Christ and His empire. At the first, they were the great
enemies of the faith, and sent forth, Justin says, , those everywhere who should circulate
the calumnies against Christians, which were made a ground of early persecutions. In
the end, it was believed, that antichrist should be from them, that they would receive
him as their Christ, the last fulfillment of our Lord’s words, “I am come in My Father’s
name and ye receive Me not; another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive”
Joh_5:43.
CLARKE, "To build it a house in the land of Shinar - The land of Shinar
means Babylon; and Babylon means Rome, in the Apocalypse. The building the house
for the woman imprisoned in the ephah may signify, that there should be a long captivity
under the Romans, as there was under that of Shinar or Babylon, by which Rome may
here be represented. That house remains to the present day: the Jewish woman is still in
the ephah; it is set on its own base - continues still as a distinct nation; and the talent of
lead - God’s displeasure - is still on the top. O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of
Israel!
GILL, "And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of Shinar,....
That is, in the province of Babylon, as the Targum paraphrases it; for Babel, or Babylon,
was in the land of Shinar, Gen_10:10 whither the Jews were carried captive, Dan_1:2
Isa_11:11, and the bearing of the "ephah" thither may denote the cause of their captivity,
the measure of sins filled up by them: though this some understand of the like injuries,
oppressions, and vexations, brought upon the Chaldeans in the land of Shinar, which
they before exercised towards and upon the Jews; and others of the rejection of wicked
men from among the Jews, by Ezra and Nehemiah, transporting them as it were back to

84. Babylon again: others of the dispersion of the Jews by the Romans, who chiefly settled
after that in the eastern parts of the world; though indeed the whole world was a land of
Shinar, or "shaking out" (n) unto them; they being shook out of their own land, and
scattered about everywhere; which dispersion has been long and lasting, notorious and
conspicuous; and they are now settled upon their own base, established upon their
former principles of legality and self-righteousness, and rejection of the true Messiah; or
rather this may be understood of the transfer of the ephah, or whole measure of iniquity,
into mystical Babylon. The antichristian church of Rome is called Babylon; she is
represented as a sink of sin, a mystery of iniquity, Rev_17:5 and a house being built for
this man of sin, antichrist, denotes the continuance of him; and being established on its
own base, shows the false foundation on which the church of Rome is built, and her
carnal security. So Cocceius, by the "two women", understands the two kingdoms or
powers of antichrist, the civil and ecclesiastical powers; which support the man of sin,
lift him up, and give him the highest place in the church, and fix his seat where idolatry
and persecution reign, as formerly did in Babylon, in the land of Shinar. Though the
whole may very well be applied to the last and everlasting punishment of sin and sinners,
when the whole measure is filled up. The end of sin and sinners is death and everlasting
destruction. The ephah, and the woman in it, are carried, not upwards to heaven, nor to
the New Jerusalem, but to the land of Shinar, the land of shaking; to hell, where are
utter darkness, weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth; where a house is built for them,
which denotes their continuance there; and which, being established on its own base,
shows their punishment shall forever remain; their worm never dies; their fire is not
quenched; the smoke of it ascends for ever and ever; their destruction is an everlasting
destruction.
JAMISO , "To build ... house in ... Shinar — Babylonia (Gen_10:10), the capital
of the God-opposed world kingdoms, and so representing in general the seat of
irreligion. As the “building of houses” in Babylon (Jer_29:5, Jer_29:28) by the Jews
themselves expressed their long exile there, so the building of an house for “wickedness”
there implies its permanent stay.
set ... upon her own base — fixed there as in its proper place. “Wickedness” being
cast out of Judah, shall for ever dwell with the antichristian apostates (of whom Babylon
is the type), who shall reap the fruit of it, which they deserve.
TRAPP, "Verse 11
Zechariah 5:11 And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of Shinar: and
it shall be established, and set there upon her own base.
Ver. 11. To build it an house in the land of Shinar] That is, of Babylon, Genesis
10:10; Genesis 11:2, where various of the Jews still remained in wilful exile, as loth
to leave their houses and gardens, which they had builded and planted there,
Jeremiah 29:5, preferring captivity before liberty, see 1 Chronicles 4:22-23. Hence,
upon their final dispersion by the Romans, various of them resorted there for
entertainment. There Peter, the apostle of the circumcision, had collected an elected
Church, 1 Peter 5:13, and thence he writeth his epistle to the sojourning Jews
scattered through those eastern parts, 1 Peter 1:1, from whence also those kings of
the east, Revelation 16:12, the converted Jews (as some expound it), are expected.
And who can tell whether this land of Shinar be not the same with that land of
Sinim? Isaiah 49:12; confer Isaiah 11:16, Zechariah 10:11. Or, by the land of Shinar

85. here, may be meant exilium totius orbis, their general rejection by all nations; the
whole world being to them Shinar, that is, a land of excussion.
And it shall be established, &c.] This denoteth the diuturnity or perpetuity of their
punishment.
ELLICOTT, "(11) Land of Shinar.—Where mankind had first organised a
rebellion against God (Genesis 12:2); it was also the land of the Captivity of the
Jews (Babylonia).
This vision is a circumstantial symbolisation of the promise given in Zechariah 3:9 :
“I will remove the iniquity of the land in one day.” While it is a promise of the
remission of the punishment of their iniquity (for in Hebrew, “iniquity” often means
punishment), it serves also as an exhortation to the returned exiles to leave in
Babylon the iniquity which had been the cause of their being transported thither.
COKE, "Verse 11
Zechariah 5:11. To build it— To build her her. The woman mentioned Zechariah
5:7-9. A house denotes a fixed and settled habitation, See Jeremiah 29:5.
The land of Shinar— That is, the land of Babylon, Genesis 11:2. But this does not
necessarily imply, that Babylon would be the scene of the next captivity; but only
that the people in case of fresh transgression might expect another severe captivity,
like that in Babylon, but of still longer duration. In this manner Egypt is used
proverbially for any grievous calamity inflicted by the judgment of God. See
Deuteronomy 28:68. Hosea 8:13; Hosea 9:3. The last clause of this verse should be
rendered, And when it is prepared, then shall she be made to rest there according to
what is prepared for her.
REFLECTIO S.—1st, A new vision here appears, big with terrible judgment
against the wicked.
1. The prophet, looking upwards, beheld a flying roll; and, being asked what he
saw, describes a strange sight; a roll of vast length appeared expanded in the air,
and carried by the wind.
2. This is explained to him by the angel, as containing the curse, the long catalogue
of lamentations, mourning, and woe, which are the wages of sin; that goeth forth
over the face of the whole earth; either the world in general, where all have sinned,
and come short of the glory of God; or over the whole land of Israel, which seems
principally intended. ote; Sinners, whose eyes are blinded by the god of this world,
see no danger, and walk on fearless and secure; but the enlightened mind, that looks
into God's word, beholds with trembling the wrath which hangs over their devoted
heads, and wonders at their insensibility.
3. The crimes here particularly charged upon them are theft and perjury. The curse

86. lies against every one that stealeth, whether robbing God, Malachi 3:8 or man, their
parents or others; whether in the lesser acts of fraud, imposition, deceit, and
knavery; or the more atrocious deeds of open violence; and every one that sweareth,
profanely, rashly, passionately, thoughtlessly, falsely, shall be cut off; God will not
hold them guiltless; wrath is upon them.
4. God will himself fearfully execute the curse denounced on these criminals: I will
bring it forth, saith the Lord of Hosts. It shall not only cut off the sinners
themselves, and destroy both soul and body in hell; but it shall entail temporal ruin
upon their whole house, and, like the plague of leprosy prove incurable, till the
whole be utterly demolished and laid in ruins.
2nd, Another vision succeeds, dark and hard to be understood. The prophet is
commanded to look up, and say what he saw; but, through the distance, or dimness
of his sight, he does not distinctly perceive the object, and asks, what it is; and is
answered:
1. It is an ephah, a measure containing about seven gallons, and seems to signify the
measure of the iniquity of the Jewish people. And he said moreover, This is their
resemblance through all the earth; throughout Judaea, or through all the countries
where they were dispersed, their wickedness abounded, and especially in the times
of Christ the measure of their sins was filled fast.
2. A woman appears, sitting in the midst of the ephah, the representative of the
sinners among them, and a lively figure of her who afterwards should arise, the
mother of harlots. And he said, This is wickedness, intimating the exceeding
sinfulness of their iniquity, who, being professors of godliness, had so grievously
degenerated.
3. A talent of lead is cast as a cover on the mouth of the ephah, to shew how
insupportable the load would be on the impenitent.
4. Two women came forth with wings like a stork, and lifting up the ephah, with the
wind in their wings, swiftly conveyed it to the land of Shinar, or Babylon, where
they built the woman a house, &c. See the notes. And these seem to represent the
Roman armies, swiftly marching to the destruction of Jerusalem, and carrying the
Jewish nation into a more dreadful captivity, and of much longer continuance, than
they had endured in Babylon: and to this day we see them sunk under this load.
Some refer this to antichrist, and his destruction: and it may well be applied to the
eternal perdition of all ungodly men, who, when the measure of their iniquity is full,
will be caught away from the earth, under their load of guilt, and cast down into
Shinar, into the everlasting burnings, where is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing
of teeth.
PULPIT, "Zechariah 5:11

87. To build it (her) an house. The LXX. refers the pronoun to the ephah, but it seems
more natural to refer it to a person, the woman. The feminine gender of the original
would apply to either. She is carried away from Judaea to have a permanent
dwelling in a land more suited to her. Pusey thinks that possibly a temple may be
intended, "a great idol temple, in which the god of this world should be
worshipped." In the land of Shinar; i.e. the ideal land of unholiness, where the
world power first arrayed itself against God in the attempt at Babel. Septuagint, ἐν
γῇ βαβυλῶνος, (Genesis 11:2, etc.). Shinar, equivalent to Sumer in the Assyrian
monuments, denotes Lower or Southern Babylon; Accad, Upper or orthern
Babylon. And it shall be established. The house shall be firmly fixed there. Others
render, "when it is ready." And set there. The gender shows that the woman is
meant, not the house: "And she shall be set there in her own place." Thus from the
spiritual Zion all wickedness shall be abolished (Zechariah 3:9) and sent to its own
place prepared for the enemies of God and holiness. Doubtless, too, a warning is
here conveyed to those Jews who still lingered in Babylon, that they were dwelling
in a land accursed of God, and were liable to be involved in the fate which pursues
ungodliness. Orelli and some others see in these two visions an analogy to the two
goats on the Day of Atonement, of which one was sacrificed for the sins of the
people, and the other bore away their iniquity to the demons' abode, the wilderness
(Leviticus 16:1-34.).